Question: The Los Angeles Times recently headlined a story: "Getting Brilliant Students to Seek Jobs beyond Wall Street."107 The article examined the movement at some of the nation's top universities to encourage the brightest graduates to broaden their job search beyond high-paying Wall Street opportunities. An online campaign labeled "Stop the Brain Drain" gathers signatures and pushes for changes in campus recruiting practices. The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created an entrepreneurship center to provide support for students seeking work with start-ups and other smaller ventures. Bill Aulet, who heads the center, explained some of his reasoning: "Once it became clear that financial instruments were a big cause of the [financial] crisis, and that's what our incredibly intelligent students were being used for, we thought, ‘Boy, can't they be used to do more useful things?'"108
a. Would we be better off as a nation if more of our brighter students shunned Wall Street jobs? Explain.
b. What will you do? Explain.