Society makes precious short work of the cads.
make short work of：习语。意为：迅速干掉；很快处理；很快做完。precious 为口语副词用法，意为“极其；非常”，强调速度之快。

就结构而言，make 意为“做出；做成”，precious short work  为宾语，short work 工作做得快，迅速。of the cads 表示“对象”。字面意思是：社会对这类人快速地做完了处理工作。引申意思是：社会快速消灭了那些无赖之徒。意味着：现代社会不是这些人的容身之所；社会不容无赖之徒。

The children made short work of the cakes. 孩子们很快把蛋糕吃完了。
He made short work of his lunch(= ate it quickly). 他三下两下吃完午饭。
He made short work of his opponent. 他干净利落地把对手给解决了。
They made short work of the sweets. 他们很快把糖果都吃光了。
Our team made short work of their opponents. 我们队很快就打败了对手。
The team made short work of their opponents. 这个队一下子就把对方压倒了。
They will make short work of most cutting jobs. 他们会快速完成大量裁员。
Liverpool made short work of the opposition(= in a football game). 利物浦队干净利落地击败了对手。
Let's make short work of that. I want to get off right away. 咱们快点解决，我想马上就走。
Stu: Thanks for your help, Vic. We'll make short work of this. 史都:维克，多谢你的帮忙。我们可以缩短工作了。
He was anxious to get to the movies, so he made short work of his homework. 他急着要去看电影，所以很快地做完了他的功课。
Charles was anxious to get to the movies, so he made short work of his experiment. 查尔斯着急去看电影，因此很快地做完他的实验。