Fortunefaded:

Ouch, it hurt you, didn't it?

Agreed on "stuffs", but you know it is a minor mistake. Am not going to justify it! So, let me go ahead and enroll in a language class.

As for your econ friends going to grad school, economics is a field made for grad program. Some programs are made for associate degree , some for undergrad, and some for grad. Doctors in the states are employed only after the completion of their grad program (MD). Nurses in Nepal are employed after passing 13th class, and so on. All professions have to go through their due time. But if you have an economics degree in undergraduate, then if your degree is from a top school, you are still likely to make shitloads of money in top financial and consulting firms. (Btw, economics and finance are slightly different fields, particularly after specialization.)

40% of top 1% wage earners (tax filing basis) were related to finance field, according to a paper by this year's Bates Clark medal winner economist, Immanuel Saez and his coauthor (a brief copy can be found in internet, Striking it rich, but you have to read his detailed paper to see this.I think it came out in QJE.)

Personally, sure I went overboard when I said engineers are stupid, but that's how we see it from our profession. ke garne, it is ego problem. Like you agreed, you engineers write programs like horse, we use it. From your definition, a farmer who plants crops should be the highest profession. But does anybody give a fu(k? No. The reason why economists and finance guys dont' care too much about engineers is that they are substitutable and expendable--India and China producing a million each year. But nobody respects China (and even India) produced economists and grad schools in America has only limited opening in econ/finance programs. That's how we control the supply of people in our profession and keep the salary high:)[One reason why people has to study in USA in econ/finance is because of research papers.. most of the papers use American data, so understanding american system is a must.]

An Indian friend of mine, who was topper in his IIT and did okey in our university before being employed by our firm, is looking for some opening to join finance field. I don't need any proof about which job is more lucrative.In fact, most of the engineers in our field want to work in finance field, and not the other way around.

I will be the first one to admit, like justice Scalia once did about his own professional colleagues, that finance guys make money for doing nothing. No one can really predict anything. But as long as we do things reasonably well, either by luck or sometimes by the sheer strenght of mathematics, we are trusted and we get job. These are tough times for our profession, but hey, not many of us are actually fired..they are firing engineers first. Seriously, cost cutting re. Ouch.