Earning mere interest is a poor rate of return, and the taxes paid on the interest make it worse than useless. Wealthy people want larger returns, and that's why they invest in companies.
> where most efforts go into derivative financial products
No evidence for "most".
> and investing
Yes, investing in productive enterprises.
Who do you think invested in Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Apple, etc?
You're looking at just the APY on savings accounts. Actually the rich make far more than that on interest-derived financial products through various forms of rent-seeking. Interest is the hidden tax baked into every transaction. Some studies found interest accounts for roughly half of end-user prices—12 percent on garbage collection, up to 77 percent on public housing.[1]
And as Musk warns: “If we don’t act, the entire government budget will be used just to pay interest — there won’t be money for anything. No, there won’t be money for Social Security, no Medicare, nothing. That’s where we’re headed.” [2]
In the late-stage capitalist West, most public and private money goes to servicing interest at some point in the food chain.
> where most efforts go into derivative financial products
No evidence for "most".
> and investing
Yes, investing in productive enterprises.
Who do you think invested in Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Apple, etc?