I would've become an investment banker until I could start up my own hedge fund or private equity fund. And then I'd eventually die and go straight to you-know-where.

I long had the dream of getting a PhD, too, but I stopped with a terminal Masters. To my disappointment, I just didn't see the benefits outweighing the risks/trade-offs. I agree that in many fields, a PhD doesn't mean as much as it used to. We're so profit-driven these days that a PhD just has a big price tag hanging around their neck in the eyes of employers compared to some fresh-faced kid that they can train on-the-job or some offshore outsourced worker.

And the value of basic research is way down, too. Nowadays, every endeavor has to have some sort of financial payoff, which basic research rarely does. I feel the same way about our appreciation of the arts.

I think it's so sad that the cream of the crop, say a graduating class from nearby CalTech, is going to get scooped up by Wall St. firms to help them essentially figure out ways to gamble with other people's money to generate more money, instead of actually advancing our knowledge, developing better things, etc. What a waste of our youth.