"I want to create trading algorithms that make money purely on speed, providing no improvement in resource allocation but still extracting wealth"

(From SMBC, by Zach Weinersmith. The original has an embedded post-punchline comment: "It's the only way to be sure.")

This comic would be funnier, of course, if it weren't so obviously true.

Of course, there's also a certain... irony?... hypocrisy?... in a lawyer lamenting the pursuit of wealth acquired without creating anything tangible. On the other hand... lawyers can help develop sane, human laws that may be able to direct our financial institutions into more productive (or at least less destructive) channels.