Wall Street

"If all else fails, get a job in finance.” It is, increasingly so, the Princeton mantra, spoken from the mouths of students of every major, from philosophy to East Asian studies to mathematics to the engineering disciplines. And it is a sentiment that has come under quite a bit of scrutiny before, for many reasons.

We’re at a tipping point: Either we reestablish an economy that is based on real products and services providing real value to citizens, or we slide further into the theater of economic activity. The era of physics majors crafting opaque weapons of mass financial destruction has to come to an end. It’s going to take a new generation of Don Plattens and Dick Fishers, taking the knowledge from their majors in philosophy and history and applying it in their real work, to create a new and better real world. That observation, like solid financial practices, should be readily transparent, not opaque. If you think that you could contribute to that sort of a restoration, please don’t let anyone scare you out of it. We really need you.

I’ve realized that what bothers me and others on campus in this regard is the appearance that some of our peers have given up the romantic notion of working as an end in itself and not just a means. The rest of us, not completely irrationally, dismiss the possibility that a good number of the 35.9 percent might actually enjoy their careers on Wall Street. But far from pitying them out of concern for their futures — futures we assure ourselves we’d hate to live — their choices make us uneasy.

I decided to attend Occupy Wall Street, the social justice campout that began in the financial district over three weeks ago, mostly out of curiosity. I first read about OWS in August when the Facebook event was sent around. The cynic in me didn’t take it seriously, this overly self-aware attempt to ride the wave of a more genuine Arab revolutionary spirit.