Brain Drain into Futility

At the talk show with Jay Leno, Obama talked about putting the best brains back into engineering, science, teaching, etc.

(MR. OBAMA: Well, and part of what happened over the last 15, 20 years is that so much money was made in finance that about 40 percent, I think, of our overall growth, our overall economic growth was in the financial sector. Well, now what we're finding out is a lot of that growth wasn't real. It was paper money, paper profits on the books, but it could be easily wiped out.

And what we need is steady growth; we need young people, instead of -- a smart kid coming out of school, instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide they want to be an engineer, they want to be a scientist, they want to be a doctor or a teacher)end of script

To think that for so many years the best brains went into creating toxic assets, froth and bubbles that fell like a pack of cards. What a waste of beautiful minds, all in the name of good pay and the good life. Do these people really get satisfaction apart from what their money can buy? When I think of this I can not help but relate it to the great loss of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution in China that set back progress for a decade.

Having said about putting the best brains to good use, how about stretching the brains of our typical young person in Singapore. How many Singapore youths really have a quest for knowledge beyond their narrow scope of studies for exam or for a vocation. It is quite frightening how little they know or care to know. Maybe my opinion is biased because my experience is mainly with young people from a disadvantaged neighbourhood school. I hope so.