Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I tend to equate STEM with 'profitable future'." There's a large number of extremely wealthy and extremely powerful people working publicly as hard as they can against that belief, and the government has been purchased to be on their side. Very few things unite everyone in power both in .biz and .gov quite as well as the destruction of STEM as a middle class or better lifestyle. My advice is be very careful when goi…
That's quite a claim there--would you mind elaborating on your reasoning? Perhaps it's just due to my current existence in a very productive city, but STEM (and vocational training) seem to be both very much in demand and rewarded.
Estimate a ratio of "we need more STEM" vs "we need less STEM" in .biz, .gov, mainstream media, etc. Does anyone other than internal "tech" sites ever discuss how the pool is too big and getting too large and maybe we need licensing and unionization and apprenticeships or some way to shrink it? Lets say maybe 100 to 1 ratio? Are there any paid PR groups or lobbying groups at all on the side of the STEM worker? Any? Not even one? How bout on the other side? Oh, dozens you say working to increase the supply and drop the cost (aka our salary).
A continuous stream of one unified voice from .gov, .biz, and .edu that we need more STEM grads, more STEM immigrants, more STEM is what "we" need or else. Yet... talk to people who aren't paid PR shills and its all poor working conditions, more grads than jobs, ageism, underemployment/overeducation. Sure you'll get a few quisling types who think that supporting those trying to destroy them will somehow personally save them, although historically that never seems to work out. And there's maybe 3 or 4 cities with a high cost of living and a shortage of techies... at least right now... at least supposedly. A tiny subfield with real demand as opposed to PR demand like petroleum engineering has explosive salary growth rates... supposedly we're told the demand is even higher for code slingers, well, OK, show me the increasing salaries and the unemployment rate approaching zero. Oh that's not happening nationwide without lies, damned lies, and statistics?
Well someones lying then, or at least not telling the whole truth. Do you think the guy who stands to make a higher profit could be lying to you? Nah, Management and PR are transparent and clean as glass... How about the .gov guy purchased by the .biz guy, has a politician ever lied to you? Hmm. How bout that .edu guy who's salary more or less depends on convincing kids to enter his field, does he have any conflict of interest, or at best well intentioned delusion? Yet a VERY few lone voices in the wilderness, with no economic interest (or not much anyway) suggest maybe the emperor really does have no clothes, but they must be making it up because their reward for it is ... nothing at all? A better life for their kids? +5 of HN karma? Seems a pretty small reward at best for a lot of work.
So that's my interpretation of the players on the field. There's the completely unorganized STEM workers, and absolutely everyone else united against them with a common cause, identical PR campaign, for fairly rational similar economic reasons. I wonder which side will win?
Now compare our response to other fields involving labor forces and import/export and immigration and .gov policies. We seem to be failing ourselves in the PR war compared to ... well compared to pretty much every other field of human endeavor other than maybe the pot growers, congressmen, and sex workers. And there's a substantial overlap there at that. Actually they probably do a better job of self promotion than we do.