alt Hacker NewsYeah that's my first reaction to. 1.2% doesn't sound much. It's just people making headlines out of thin air. If it lists the water and energy consumption I might be more concerned.
Slightly off-topic, but ~9% of GDP is generated by "financial services" in the US. Personally I think it's a more alarming data point.
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Ultimately, "financial services" is what's downstream of insurance, banking (deposits / money transfers), loans and retirement savings. Also efficient capital allocation and the provision of government services to some extend. Those are things we want, and we want those things to work well.
Why is 9% for financial services bad? This should cover fees/interest from everything like loans, transactions, mortgages, advice, investing, etc. It doesn't seem that surprising to me that the systems that are the backbone for all the money operations that power the rest of the economy make up about 10%.
some years back I was talking to an acquaintance through my daughter's kindergarten and complaining about this point and he said it was because financial services was where all the innovation was happening (he was an investment consultant of some sort)
He was convicted of fraud a few years later.
Financial services makes the unrealistic consumption of rich countries possible. That’s worth 9%.
Nearly 20% for healthcare causes some reservations -- considering how little we get for our money in America.