throwing money at rich people is good as long as it's in the form of coins moving at several kilometers per second

It was less smug, but I basically received this argument from one of my brothers when I tried to explain that China is (probably) striving towards a future where it's good enough for capital to do things people need instead of making financial profits.

Edit: I'm always open to the possibility that I'm an idiot, but it really seemed like he had never considered the possibility that resources could be used to directly meet needs. I'm not feeling like I was the one being stupid.