I hate this friggin' parable, and if I hear or read it one more time I'll explode

What good had Wall Street ever done for America? “There must be something useful in there, but it is really hard to see what,” he says. “That’s everybody’s challenge: come up with a clearly beneficial example of financial innovation without mentioning A.T.M.s, and no one can do it."

That's Krugman, but I've heard this from lots of people. I hate bankers as much as the next guy, but what about a clearly beneficial innovation in the car industry without mentioning the seat belt? Yet cars have been consistenly getting faster, safer, and cheaper. What about a clearly beneficial innovation in molecular bioscience? You get the point. All this 'innovation you can point your finger to' stuff I really don't get.