Hello BOAZ_David

My post was just an (overly frank?) agreement with the writer. And no, I know little about brushless DC motors.

By the way, may I please have a serious dig at the people without engineering degrees who insist on barging into our profession and depriving our up and coming graduates of much needed experience.... and thus perpetrating one of the unstated reasons that this country faces a grave shortage of tradesmen.

I think the problem comes down to a lack of venture capital. In America, twenty-somethings who are in finance cannot wait to get out of that industry and into technology.

As a former Sydney Merchant Banking recruiter, I know this problem well. We tried to avoid graduate recruitment with its endless line of kids with no idea what the job was about. They are victims of our education system and media that delivers its biggest rewards in the form of "recognition".

Kids are constantly reminded of where they came in relation to the rest of their class etc, and this constant feeding of recognition pushes them into roles that sound schmick when mentioned at a party.

Yet, if one were to disect the job of a foreign exchange dealer it would fall somewhere between a bookies clerk and an accounts payable person. There is zero satisfaction for a gifted person in this sort of role. So they feed their recognition button with the porche, the casino and conspicuous revelry. Then they burn out.

But not from the job but, rather, from the self destructive responses to the monotony of the job. The in-house myths suggest that they move on to cooler forms of early retirement. But I now of one ex-head-of-desk who now runs a fruit shop, another has removals trucks.

Excessive recognition motivation looms as a serious long-term problem for Australia and the world. We'll get an entire corporate culture with a narcissistic personality disorder.

We have kids with double majors, a masters and an MBA in train but who lack the basic interpersonal skills to deal with issues that are more than 10% outside the daily norm. Instead of an endless quest for credentials, they should spend six months pulling beers or driving cab to learn how to deal with people.

Bundaberg's "Dr Death" had a classic recognition problem, spending much of his time "perceptually positioning" himself in the eyes of those around him. The last thing we need is people like that building bridges and tunnels.

We need to get into the classrooms (or out of them)to develop and reinforce the functional satisfaction that comes from completing a task or project. Reward them for what they do. And by their deeds shall ye know them.

In my opinion, Australia not only does not only not have enough engineers, but it lacks motivation for innovation. Australia does not do enough to encourage invention and innovation. There are the odd few spots of invention and innovation, but it is not part of the culture of the nation, of its national psyche. Engineering, invention and innovation are not given the same publicity and encouragement as sports and entertainment.
The nations of East Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and China by far surpass Australias research and development, and manufacturing capacity in the field of electronics, computing and related technologies. I have purchased a laser pointer, which was manufactured in China, for $5 at a suburban Melbourne retailer. For a look at an advanced humanoid robot produced by Honda in Japan, see
http://asimo.honda.com. I suspect that Australia lacks the research and development and manufacturing capacity to produce either a laser pointer at that price point, or a humanoid Robot.
This means that in the event of a situation where foreign technology supply is not available, the people of Australia could face harsh problems

So now our Govt wants to compete with Asia by lowering wages to attract industry and investment here.If we go the way of the US and have a pool of working poor we will also have the crime and hopelessness of not be able to afford to buy the products we produce.All people in our modern era who work should be able to live beyond a subsistance level.

Ireland went high tech and invested in education and is doing very well.I agree with Tanveer,Perseus and Knowall;we are lacking innovation and tenacity.Could it be our infatuation with Hollywood glamour,sex,drugs and rock and dole?

In every Chinese business in this country I see people on a mission of achievement.While I think we should have time for family,we sure can learn a lot from them.

Arjay - all good points you raise. It is unfeasable to lower Australia's standard of living in a spurious effort to compete with the Asian market - we need an intelligent, innovative, high tech approach such as Ireland has taken.

The best professor I ever had at uni was an engineer - we need creative flair and innovation, something the bean counters are not capable of nor interested in.

(formerly Trinity)