And of course, the science track is so much more prestigious than all the cool kids who want to do political science, commerce, law, often take it... Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Look at how many quantitative analysts come from France...
It doesn't.
Musicians still think it's the 60s-80s, and music matters.
All that matters now is finance, with law as a footnote. Finance is the field which has cannibalised all of the talent which could be doing something useful with its time. It's the new rock 'n roll.
No one cares about research or engineering any more. Funding is being cut. A few months from now there will be the usual outcry about how badly the UK is doing compared to other countries, but funding will continue to be cut all the same.
You don't need science for a service economy. You just need people who can smile and nod and rob you blind, and science isn't the ideal training for that.
Seriously. It's surprising how few people do. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
