The Easy Path

clipped from esr.ibiblio.org I blame the decay of the high schools – our brightest students (mal)educated (i.e. not sorted nor challenged to the degree even the most able discover their limits) in public schools need a year’s remediation in math and science to catch up with (just) the average international student at our universities. Rather than pay for non-credit catch-up courses and lose a year so they can compete in science and engineering, too many of these students take the easy path into the legal profession which also rewards the brightest.. but at a high cost, given we don’t set quotas on their employment – perhaps we need a fixed limit on the “below the line” social costs we’re willing able to bear for folks who help us argue…. (compare the number of lawyers in the U.S. and Japan, per capita, per business, per $ of GDP…).