Being told "professional poker doesn't contribute to society."

[Fedorfan]

[ QUOTE ]
Unless it is televised, poker is just an isolated event inside some room. Nobody not at that table benefit from the game taking place.

Televised poker could be considered entertainment, in the same way as football games, and has a purpose in society.

The society needs leaders (e.g. The President).
The society needs lawyers.
The society needs doctors.
The society needs bank clerks.

I have problems finding any profession that is comparable to poker players in terms of society uselessness.

Edit: Taxes do contribute to society. I'm looking past that right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could certainly argue that their are jobs that actually have more of a overall negative contribution like lobbyists, who you could argue have corrupted our political process, leading to a climate of corporatism.

Advertising and marketing, what would the country look like without the billions of dollars spent annually marketing junk food and soda, and creating other unnecessary demands and wants... well we'd probably be as a nation less fat overall, and have less credit card debt as a whole.

You could argue that investors can hurt society, when the 90's dot.com bubble burst and millions of regular people lost a lot of money in the stock market because they were the fish.