Yes, snotty, that's the word. I just interpreted a tone of "Wall Street is for the creme de la creme, so if you work anywhere else doing anything else, it's a testament to your mediocrity; if you kick us out of our nest then we'll just effortlessly come eat the dinner right off of your plate, because whatever it is you do would have to be a cakewalk for people of our brilliance". The author seems to look at the chicken-egg conundrum from simply a different angle. He/she thinks Wall Street financiers are somehow carrying the load for everyone else ("No more free rides on our backs", "Joe Mainstreet our food supply") when ultimately they deal exclusively in abstractions, abstractions that have no purpose if not for other sectors of the economy actually producing value-added goods.