Originally Posted by
the_don
accountant?? no way, but an investment banker? yes. there is also a difference between doing work for altruistic reasons, musicians also want to make it big, and have goals and creativity and passion. In what way is that similar to riding your expensive bike around town taking documents places? But when you get a family, have children to feed and clothe and fund, making money becomes top priority. You gotta pay them bills.
It reminds me of family guy when Peter said his relative was a philospher, with the wife holding a baby saying, just get a job, with his reply "BUT, Why????"
An investment banker? I think that's about as low on the spectrum of horrible jobs I can think of (short of sweat shop labor) so our priorities are clearly different. I'm talking about that for me (and a lot of other people) the promise of what you will be compensated for your job is more or less meaningless weighed against how much you will enjoy working that job. Better to enjoy the majority of your waking life than work a crappy job to pay for your speedboat that will grant you 30 hours of enjoyment per year out of the thousands of hours working a job that sucks.
As for altruism or utility to society, an investment banker produces no product or useful services and brings no benefit to anyone other than other investment bankers. The day of finance being used to promote the production of goods and services has been replaced mostly by finance as it's own insulated world of money backed by no real assets for at least a decade. From a societal utility point of view, they're worthless.