ENGINEERS IN POLITICS

It did not come as good news from my Alma Mater that the University is building a new business school. There is already a sufficient number of business schools, and also there are too many very smart youngsters, armed with software and computers not available just a few years ago, who view the business school as the launching platform into a world of big bucks, where money is churned around the clock, produces nothing of value, places economies at risk, and where the system is always ripe for invention of a new financial instrument that makes a few very wealthy and leaves the rest without shirts.
I would rather see the University, and other Universities as well, institute programs that encourage engineers to enter public service in elected offices at mid-career for a half dozen years. The programs would educate them on how one would prepare to seamlessly accomplish a transition so that entry would be no great burden and provide overviews on how things get done, once in office. Growing populations, dwindling resources and climate change all signal a call for application of systems engineering to help provide solutions that ensure quality of life on this planet. Legislative bodies, particularly the US Congress, need engineers to help set things straight. This means practicing engineers, not whoever happens to hold an engineering degree. There are presently only six degreed engineers in Congress, none of whom has any particular credentials in the field. Representative Joe Barton from Texas, for example, who holds a degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M, had brief, inconsequential employment before moving into politics. As a skeptic of climate change and infamously apologizing to BP after the Gulf oil spill, he hardly fills the bill. It is sad that scientific testimony before congressional committees has little prospect of being absorbed by the conferees, much less stir subsequent reflection and action on the information proffered.
The growing complexity of a world with a population exceeding 6 billion people cries out for engineering to take part in government; people who understand cause and effect; people who understand short term and long term consequences of legislation; people who understand statistical analyses, recognize which are important and what they point to; and indeed people who keep up with the scientific community and can coach those in government who come endowed with little more than connect-the dots mentality; and lastly, people who realize that consumption based economies must ultimately come to an end, replaced by sustainable behavior as way of life.