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That exact statement applies to the work of stealing a painting. If you want to defend investment as productive activity, you're going to have to be a little more thorough than that.

And yet, it's much less risky that what everyone else has been doing, since mean and median incomes have declined.

They have not declined. They just have not kept up.

From the article: "Average adjusted gross income for filers in the second-highest fifth dropped by about 1 percent.... Adjusted gross income in the second-lowest fifth declined the most, 9 percent".

On an adjusted basis, sure. I was speaking in absolute terms. What's happening is that people are leaving the second quintile. About 1/3 move down, 2/3 move up.

The sort of thing people in the second quintile used to do has evaporated.

The same could be said about gambling. Are roulette players "creating wealth"?