Even mainstream establishment publications like The New Yorker started asking, “What Good Is Wall Street?” Why is a sector of the economy that creates nothing running the real economy and taking home such a large portion of national income?

What Jacobs reveals is that most of the wealth that has propelled people into the top 1% and beyond was gained not through the creation economic benefit, but through rent-seeking. Economic rents are obtained when someone is able to extract wealth or excessive returns despite no additional contribution to productivity, or what could be called socially useless activity.

Rent seeking like landlords?

Rent seeking like Airbnb?

Or some other form of rent seeking?

From Investopedia: Rent-seeking is the use of a company, organization or individual's resources to obtain economic gain from others without reciprocating any benefits to society through wealth creation.

So more landlords than Airbnb, it seems.

"Rent" is too narrowly associated with real estate, right?

I found terms for "rent" in my car lease agreement.  I asked about it. It was the difference between what I had agreed to pay and a larger amount they wanted to get. They snuck in a "rent" charge to extract some additional dollars from me.  Rent on a lease? Pulease.

Rent on a lease does seem ridiculous and unfair. 

They Don’t Just Hide Their Money. Economist Says Most of Billionaire Wealth is Unearned.

http://evonomics.com/they-dont-just-hide-their-money/

I'm beginning to wonder why we don't tax billionaires more. 

That's a question with a complicated answer.