Does Reddit ever actually *do* anything?

I've been hanging here for a little while, and I'm continually impressed by everyone's intelligence, acceptance, ethics, and damn biting wit. I really think that this is only public and accessible place on the Internet that is held to higher than accepted standards; which is awesome. Rather than look at pictures all day, however, I'm really curious if Reddit has actually made a measurable or observable difference to what plagues modern society (e.g. greed, war, hate). It seems like everyone is content to just sit there, have high standards and commendable ethics, but it seems we all are just content with voluntarily wasting our potential, as well as our shitty time.