I try not to generalize, but there are some serious issues with Wall St. as a whole. There are certainly good actors within Wall St though they probably are in the minority.

Take Jack Bogle and his company Vanguard for example. They became huge and successful by slashing fees on their products which absolutely helps the little guy trying to invest, and they are still a low cost leader in the industry. Bogle himself wrote several books attempting to help the public with investing.

As far as the high salaries, one thing ot consider is that Wall St. currently attracts the young, aggressive, type-a personalities which means even though they can be making well into the six figures soon out of college, roughly half goes to taxes, and the rest is often spent on booze, coke, and strippers. Plus to be fair, entry level jobs on Wall St. require 90-hour work weeks, which means dedicating your entire life basically to the job.

As far as whether most of these people really add value, I'd have to take it on a case by case basis. Plenty of bad apples for sure, but there is legitimate wealth creation and capital allocation going on in spite of all the cronyism(bailouts), central banking intervention, heavy regulations, and heavy taxation.