Business Lobbyists Screwing Sci/Tech Students

A study by a Georgetown University demographer suggests that there may be too many citizen STEM graduates in the US, not too few. STEM means science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

It is "common wisdom" that there is a shortage of STEM workers in the US. But, this is not actually the case, and confirms my own observation of the software development field. Right-wing business lobbyists have simply manufactured a "shortage" in order to justify hiring "A" foreign workers at "C" prices.

Over-encouraging students to go into STEM will simply dilute the wages, making the STEM fields even less attractive. Even the high-end STEM candidates appear to be jumping ship for more lucrative fields according to the analysis.

In an L.A. Times interview, President Obama has noticed an ugly trend whereby technically gifted students often go into the field of financial gimmickry, such as chasing small lags in market reaction to business news rather than work in a field that produces something more tangible, like inventing flying cars or screen-doors that shut right.

We are becoming a nation of marketers and wheeler-dealers. In other words, con artists. We need a wider variety of industries to avoid becoming a one-trick sales pony. Improving economic variety will help economic stability by giving us a diversified portfolio of industries, and improve our morality. Fixing the trade deficit would be a good first step.

Too much salesmanship is bankrupting our morals. The right-wing often talks about morals, but they tend to focus on sexual morals, not business morals, such as honesty toward customers. For right-wingers, screwing too many sexual partners will send you to hell; but screwing customers via clever manipulation is somehow okay with the Big Dude. Would Jesus try to sell a refrigerator with more gizmos than a customer really needs? (Sales is a necessary field, but let's not over-do it.)

Back to STEM, I do agree there are spot shortages in the information technology field; but these are because the field changes so fast, not because there are not enough STEM employees in general. Companies are just too impatient to train talented citizens in emerging trends, opting instead to shop the world for instant experts. Corporations just want to have the up-sides of choice, but dump the down-sides onto citizens

Glenn Wreck Depression

I saw Glenn Beck's book in the store the other day. I randomly flipped through it for the h8ll of it and landed on the page about the Great Depression. The chart Glenn or his handlers supplied fails to show the relationship he claims. It even shows the opposite: when government stimulus amount went up, the job numbers improved the subsequent year or two.

Plus, he conveniently bypasses the part about the worse job numbers ever coming about during the end of Hoover administration, around 1933. Hoover's plan was basically the same as the GOP's plan for the Mortgage Recession: do nothing. (Tax cuts were included in the 2009 stimulus plan.) After FDR came in, the numbers slowly got better.

Further, China's recent stimulus package, which was bigger than ours compared to the total economy, appears to be working well for the Chinese. (They had a rainy-day fund for a bigger stimulus package thanks to our lopsided trading.) If stimulus packages don't work, why is China humming along? Most mainstream economists support stimulus packages. It's not a "mad commie" thing like the conservative ranters claim.

The Right's ACORN Dice Game

Why don't some reporters bribe Halliburton employees using the same tricks the right are using on ACORN? If you try enough individual employees, eventually you'll find some that cave due to the law of averages alone. It's an old PR stunt. Fight right-wing fire with right-wing fire. It's sad we have to stoop as low as the FoxNews types, but sometimes it's necessary to prove a point. Larry Flint was the expert at these kinds of things in his day.

Advanced Degrees and Cultural Luster

It's often claimed that the fact that American citizens are less likely to pursue advanced degrees, such as Masters and PhD's, proves that Americans are lazy or poorly educated. But what's often not understood is that advanced degrees are generally held in higher regard outside of the US.

Managers of US companies value what they see as "actual productivity" and will usually trade a more productive BS for a lack-luster MS. In most countries, especially Asia, advanced degrees are simply given more esteem compared to the US. This includes more money AND more chicks. Often advanced degrees don't prepare one for the real-world, instead focusing on theory and research. Only a small percentage of advanced degree graduates will actually get a chance to use such esoteric abilities; there's simply not enough openings. Thus, usually end up doing more typical production engineering or programming, meaning their skills are largely wasted.

But this matters less in Asia due to cultural and historical reasons. The advanced degree almost automatically gains one instant esteem there. A detailed study of this cultural phenomenon would make a nice research project. But the end result is that there's less external incentive for Americans to pursue advanced degrees compared to their foreign counterparts.