<p>Do you choose your college major based on the potential it has to make money? A lot of smart people seem to go to Wall St. If they instead went into other areas, not based on the money making potential, do you think we would have had a cure for cancer or a car that runs on some abundantly available fuel like water or found a way to stop cell-aging? What do you think?</p>
<p>No because there’s no motivation in a communist system.</p>
<p>My parents want me to go into engineering because I’m practically “guaranteed” a job that will make money. Although I have an interest in Computer Science, which seems to have a bright future, I’m also interested in other majors like political science and business administration. At this point, I honestly don’t know what will happen. I might take some humanities class or biology class that I end up falling in love with, and I might change my major. I would think most people choose their major based off passion, but some do only look at which major will make them money.</p>
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No. 10char.</p>
<p>Why no? More smart people working on a problem should make it easier to solve it.</p>
<p>No way no how am I going to major in something that will get me a career that I hate and dislike, regardless of how much money it makes me. If I have a career that I like and makes a lot of money, awesome, but I doubt that will happen.</p>
<p>For me, passion/liking of my major/career > money</p>
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<p>It’s not that linear. You sound like an Occupy Wall Street automaton. As goodnoodle said it, there is no motivation in a Communist system. People don’t work so they can solve the world’s problems - that is quixotic at best; they work for self-advancement, whether that is monetary or another intrinsic driving factor. I don’t see that many people here volunteering at hospitals just to give back to the community. They do it for their college resumes. But you know what? There is nothing wrong with that. You’re fooling yourself. And guess what? People that work on Wall Street do productive work too. Before you go degrading peoples’ career paths - and with out forethought, mind you - try becoming an IB. Not as easy as it sounds just ‘making money off of other peoples’ hard work.’ You need an Ivy League education, and have to work 60+ hours a week in an incredibly stressful environment.</p>
<p>Honestly, it would be pretty cool to major in Psychology. It’s a really interesting subject and I think I would really enjoy taking the required classes in college.</p>
<p>But a major in Psychology isn’t going to help me get anywhere. Sure, I could try Psychiatry, but I’m not interested in the Sciency-aspect of Psychology. So I’m not going to waste my time and money with a Psychology major.</p>
<p>I’m not going to major in something I dislike, either. Sure, I’d probably be really successful if I pursued an engineering major, but that seems really unappealing to me.</p>
<p>I think I’ve chosen a medium. Business and Economics genuinely interests me. I’m not expecting all of the college classes to be fun, hell it’ll probably be really difficult to get through some of them, but I know that the interest I have in the subject will help me through it, and I’m confident that I’ll be successful if I go down this route.</p>
<p>The major that I am in love with happens to be one in a very well-paying industry. :D</p>
<p>At this point, I want to major in math. I really don’t know whether it’s practical or not. I don’t want to be a teacher, and most of the jobs you could potentially get other than teaching are better suited to science/engineering majors, y’know? No one would hire me when they could hire someone else.
I just want to not be starving. If I’m financially secure, I’m good. I’ll have a lot of loans to pay off, but I don’t think I’ll have kids, and that will cut down on the expenses a lot.</p>
<p>I eventually want to go to med school, so in the long run my major will not dictate my income. That being said, I have an intended major the would make okay money, but not great, depending what I chose to do with the major.</p>
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<p>A lot of people in the US work in research to find a cure for cancer, they aren’t working in a Communist system. You could be very rich if you found a cure for cancer, more so than working as an IBanker.</p>
<p>"You could be very rich if you found a cure for cancer, more so than working as an IBanker. "</p>
<p>uhh… it would take years to find a cure for even a type of cancer. However, many business fund research. </p>
<p>Also, i love business, and finance, and economics, and i am smart. Does starting a business mean i am not saving the world? Because if you look at it, businesses are a fundamental part to the world</p>
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First of all, of course that isn’t communism! However, the moment you start forcing people who don’t want to work in cancer research to do cancer research (which is what it seems like you’re trying to suggest)… Also a hypothetical world where every smart person wants to be a cancer researcher (and alternative energy, etc.) and nothing else is unreasonable.
Another point:
Those researchers want to do their research, while those aspiring to work on Wall Street don’t. Forcing those aspiring to be bankers to work on cancer research would be forcing them to do something they don’t want to do, which hinders their productivity.
In addition, you assume that being “smart” is an immutable quality that is the same no matter what circumstances you are in. Someone who is good at banking might not be equally as good in cancer research (for example, instead of having 50 bankers and 50 cancer researchers you force the bankers into cancer research so that you have 100 cancer researchers you won’t get 2x the results).
Finally, forcing people to do something they don’t want to do brings up ethical issues that I believe are far more pressing than cancer research.</p>
<p>Also note: it is not possible to have a cure for cancer in general. Cancer is a multitude of diseases.</p>
<p>If all smart people were forced into jobs curing cancer and finding alternative energy sources, we would have no smart people for other jobs! Teachers would be dumb. Without intelligence to impart to kids, the kids would be dumb as well. That’s just one example (chosen because I’m an aspiring teacher with a firm belief that teachers should actually be smart in the subjects they are teaching).</p>
<p>Basically, it’s good that we have intelligent people with other passions. We need people of high quality in every profession, and with all of them clustered into only the mentally demanding ones, the rest of society would be a mess.</p>
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<p>No. They will have no motivation to do those things. You can suggest that more smart people doing these things would make them better but that is not the case. Those people on Wall Street care about their own self-advancement. Also Not everyone smart people is limited to college. I know of plenty of smart students from my school who went on to be hair stylist, rapper, factory worker, Start their own business, etc. It is their desire to do so.</p>
<p>Not at all, I will be going into education and hopefully becoming a child psychologist. If I never become a psychologist that’s ok to. I believe more people who love what they do are needed.</p>
<p>Where do you get the notion that most smart people end up on wall street, all the super smart people I know are scientists or engineers, work at universities, or are doctors. Granted, this also may be a product of what I stereotypically see as “smart”. I want to go to college doing either math or physics, but I don’t exactly know what I want to be even though I have an idea, and money hasn’t really swayed my choices.</p>
<p>I want to be a teacher because it’s the best way I feel I can make a difference. It’s the only job that will every make me happy. Of course the money isn’t great, but what does a $100k salary at a job you hate really get you? Misery, hatefulness, stress, and regret. And money to waste trying to make you forget it with alcohol, drugs, or therapy.</p>
<p>I’ll choose economics over philosophy/polisci, not because I necessarily love it more, but because I do enjoy it and it will give me a good job. If I made the same amount of money doing philosophy as working in business, then I would most likely do philosophy. However, I want to support my family and provide my children with the same chances my parents gave me, therefore I’m going to take the career that will give me more money (and I still enjoy).</p>