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As an (American) person with a child graduating with a degree in Physics from a top university, this is what I see.

Our fake, printed, fiat monetary system, manipulated by the Federal Reserve is distorting incentives - and has for decades.

At least half of my child’s friends in physics or engineering have been attracted to work for Wall Street (algo trading, data analysis), or the biggest tech - Amazon, Google, Facebook. Another large portion will continue their studies (mostly paid for by the universities) at PhD level. Presumably they will do research at university or government laboratories. Remember too that probably 10-20% of these graduates are foreign nationals as well.

I heard of one boy, from last year’s class, who is working at Boeing.

That’s all - not one of these very impressive kids is going to any American industrial, electronics or computer firm. They either don’t pay the salaries to complete with the money-traders, or do not do the recruitment at these schools.

“...At least half of my child’s friends in physics or engineering have been attracted to work for Wall Street (algo trading, data analysis), or the biggest tech - Amazon, Google, Facebook. Another large portion will continue their studies (mostly paid for by the universities) at PhD level. Presumably they will do research at university or government laboratories. Remember too that probably 10-20% of these graduates are foreign nationals as well. ...”

My thoughts!
I can see why, when you’re starting out & you have a BS. - Well big money from Wall Street firms but “ugh” you like have to live in NYC. I guess that’s exciting when you’re young (It didn’t excite me! At any age!) But very expensive to live there!

“..Amazon, Google, Facebook ....” - Again good money & its where all the “cool kids” are! I personally hate the locations of these companies.

“...Another large portion will continue their studies (mostly paid for by the universities) at PhD level. ....” - When you have a BS in Physics this is what you are expected to do! If you don’t chances are you’ll end up a code cutter at some industrial giant. In this case master’s degree is a good investment. A MS in engineering with a BS in physics is a great attractive combination for industry. Only pursue the PhD if you feel you have to have it. Its not a bad choice but its a lot of work & time. In my experience the pay-off ($$$) between MS & PhD is much flatter then between BS & MS ($$$$).

“....probably 10-20% of these graduates are foreign nationals as well .....” - Try 60%-70% foreign nationals! Almost 40 years ago when I was in grad school it was easily 50%-60% foreign nationals. I had classes where I was the only US guy.

“...I heard of one boy, from last year’s class, who is working at Boeing. ....” - You work for one of the DOD giants, its like working for the government. They’re bloated risk adverse and are increasingly a “advance-by-diversity” management system. (Government acquisition regulations slowly are forcing them to become a mirror image of the government, except you can be laid off!). I think most of these DOD giants need to be broken up. The Slick administration encouraged these corporate conglomerations to form. Like most things Slick it was a mistake!

Today China is the world leader in number of STEM graduates. The World Economic Forum reported that China had 4.7 million recent STEM graduates in 2016, and India had 2.6 million new STEM graduates, while the United States had only 568,000.

These numbers speak for themselves and they are terrifying. This article also contains confirmation of reports that I have seen which say that too many Chinese postgraduates return to China while many are deliberately sent here from China to our universities for STEM courses to gain the STEM expertise only to return with it to China and turn it back against the USA.

They can then take that knowledge back to China to build similar programs aimed at undermining our national security—not to mention engage in “extracurricular” activities such as spying and intellectual property theft from their professors.

Couple this with the threats to our employment base from artificial intelligence and we begin to perceive only one dimension of a huge looming wave which might be impending on America. Just to increase the pessimism, this is coming at a time when America is beginning to recognize the huge betrayal done to America by the education establishment, the very institution we need to address this problem.

Finally, it is quite apparent that Democrat presidential candidates like Andrew Yang and others have identified this problem as a viable issue for the upcoming election. His solution is typically socialist, $1000 per month gift to every American, but the point is that he and other leftists are addressing the problem and proposing solutions. In today's market of ideas, giveaway solutions garner votes, no solutions generate stay at homes.

It is the very people in the rust belt who elected Donald Trump who will be addressed by the likes of Andrew Yang with his giveaway solutions to their dilemma. When this approach, or one equally mindless but equally attractive to those suffering in the rust belt, is adopted by other candidates like Bernie Sanders, Kamella Harris or Joe Biden with big followings, they might well cut into Trump's winning margin in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana and that would mean flat-out defeat.

If this threat is real, and it appears to be very real, the Democrats are in a win-win situation: if the country is cast into a cauldron of depression and unemployment, they win by radicalizing everything. If the problem of widespread unemployment is solved, the history of the Great Depression tells us that it will be misperceived in the public mind to have been solved by government, and the Democrats win again.