From the eclectic subject which has covered engineering ethics, mentioned in passing Alfred Nobel's less than peaceful origins, subjected its students to the mind bending concepts of acoustics and is currently revealing to me the issues to consider when designing a waste water treatment plant, comes this gem "The irony is that it costs about the same to put someone through an Ivy League University in the United States as it does to incarcerate them".
Beyond the flippant reaction, "Well education does come in any manner of guises" or Stephen Fry's observation that the time he spent in English Public Schools was an excellent preparation for the time he would later spend in goal, I thought that was one comment which warranted further investigation.
Which lead me to the quoted source, Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L.Hunter Lovins. The excerpt makes for some thought provoking reading and firmly ties in economic concepts with lofty environmental ideals. Have a read and see what you think.
There is a long way to go though - this crazy subject is apparently compulsory subject for all third year mechanical engineering students. One was overheard at the start of the last lecture making the comment "I suppose they are going to tell us about even more things that will get in the way of doing our job".
I resisted the urge to turn around and say, "And you haven't even been introduced to the OHS regulations yet". After all, he has a lifetime for them to ruin his designs and get in the way of doing his job and who wants to spoil that surprise...
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