I think the point is that (a) America will need engineers, both hard engineers like Aerospace and EE, and "soft" engineers like IT workers, (b) College students will not go into debt, and Parents of college students will not spend a good portion of their retirement dollars on their kids education, if they cannot get a job in the discipline they study, and (c) given the status queue, American will experience one heck of a reverse "brain drain". Many of the wonderful high-tech tools that have transformed the trades in the last 30 years won't be there tomorrow, or at least the innovation that created them will be gone from America.
I'm not too lazy to "get a job". I worked a dozen "trade" jobs while putting myself through college in the 80s. Then I gave blood and sweat in the Navy for four years after I got my degree, picking up experience (while serving my Country) for my first civilian job. Then I worked 80 hours a week at nearly minimum wage for 3-4 years, until I became useful enough to merit a higher salary, and some years later, higher billing rate as a contractor.
In the 20 years I've been in the IT business, I have "reinvented" my career at least 5 times. Each time, it cost me money for training, and a pay cut for experience. Now, isn't it a bit arrogant for "tradesmen" to be telling folks like me to "get a job", as if we were lazy, and sitting on our butts on welfare. There are people I know in their 40's, one Naval Academy and Marine Corps vet. in particular, whose lives have been turned upside down. They've trying to "reinvent" themselves multiple times, to meet the changes of industry, but they couldnt' do it quick enough to keep their house, keep their kids in a good school, and save any of their retirement investments.
They've worked hard and lost everything, because, in my opinion, the U.S. government has been wholesaling IT and Engineering careers out the "off-shoring" door for 30 years. "Free traders" who love outsourcing miss the fact that it has not occurred in a vacume. These countries, including India, China, the Philippines, Ireland, and etc. haven't developed their High Tech industrial base from "whole cloth". Their engineers are American trained, at subsidized rates at U.S. Universities. The managers gained experence as Foreign Nationals working in the U.S.. Their designers have lifted innovation developed with American capital and yes, even American minds, and "cloned" the technology for their own country's benefit. The U.S. government has for years "sold" American jobs to the lowest bidder, i.e. by encouraging H1B, L1, and NAFTA VISA's by the millions.
If you see nothing wrong with this situation, i.e. that it's just the "nerds" getting their comeuptance, so be it. I suppose I cannot dissuade you from your religious "class-warfare" beliefs. I think the cost to the USA will be devestating over the next 20 years. There will be FEWER BUYERS for the trademen's products in the US, which translates into lower pay and fewer tradesmen opportunities.
Five years ago, my (now) 16 year old son was intent in following in my foot steps. Because of my background, he was half-way trained toward being a professional WEB designer and programmer. He was doing amazing things for an 11 year old. Today, I can't keep him mind focused on "college prep" high school studies, because he sees college as a huge expense with zero pay off. He's seen my own career problems (and I've been fairly successful), and some of his friends college and technically educated parents go broke. Why would he want to study hard in High School? Why study a foreign language, or higher math? For what?
His plan now is to become an auto mechanic, and eventually own his own shop. If he's happy doing this, it's fine by me. But what if he changes his mind in 5-10 years?
From looking at my kids peers, this pattern appears to be occuring nationwide. Kids who used to "automatically" head towards college now want nothing to do with it. Their goals are lower, because they just don't see the payoff of higher education. They've seen their own parents lose careers, houses, fortunes, and dissolve marriages, because this Country has sold their careers to the lowest bidder. Why should they join in?
SFS
"The U.S. government has for years "sold" American jobs to the lowest bidder, i.e. by encouraging H1B, L1, and NAFTA VISA's by the millions."
MNJohnnie, NAFTA and the WTO have designed a world where the next coffee maker for your home will be engineered in India, designed in Pakistan and manufactured in China or Europe. Americans will step into the picture unloading the ships, trucking or railing it to central warehouses and then to retail stores.
Twenty years ago, the engineering, designing and maufacture of our coffee pots was done 100% in the US. Some basic raw materials were imported from other countries and EVERYTHING else was done here.
Want to build a brand new home? Look on the Internet, snag your blueprints take them into a local architect for a two hour touch up, this used to be 40 to 60 hour job for the architect, then take them down to the city office for approval to an engineer trained in India.
Where all of the construction materials once came from North America now the World Trade Organization and NAFTA have decided that the world should share in the profits and jobs of manufacturing everything.
The steel plants that used to make the rebar for the foundation are now offshore. The copper mines are now offshore. The gypsum plants are now working at 1/10 the speed they used to because the gypsum is pre-prepared for the papering. The hardwoods now come from South America. Paint chemicals come from South America. LABORERS COME FROM MEXICO and South America!!! These men are willing to work harder and put in more hours each week than you would for three days pay.
Wages have been falling backwards even with inflation taken into account. So, if you are feeling comfortable with your nice clean office job, be damned careful that your boss doesn't hire three more employees for less than you are currently demanding from him.
I do hope you are earning and saving hard cash faster than you are spending it because not too far down the calendar you will be up to your neck in bills that you can't afford to pay UNLESS you make drastic changes in your lifestyle.
Five years from now all of us are going to be in trouble as international corporations who have forgetton about nationalism and only interested in world wide profit gains put the screws to every American looking for a well paying profession.
If you think I'm full of hot air, print this and file it in your file cabinet under BS. Then look at it every April 16th and determine whether you went forward or backward the past year. Determine just what it was that caused you to make gains or suffer losses and engineer the necessary corrections.
Good Luck to you and your family.
You're right - it's exactly that way. And fewer still are going to graduate school.
The foreign students that our universities train used to stay in the US - now, they return to their native lands.
And what will we do when China gets a bit stronger, militarily and economically? What will we do when we no longer lead the world in technology?
I think we will pay a terrible price for those cheap trinkets we bought at Great Wall Mart.
I hear you. What the outsourcers don't realize (or maybe they do?) is that a country without a certain critical mass of technically trained people is a country *ripe* for a takeover. Maybe not in the next five years, but certainly within a few decades. Dumb it down too much, and we're the plum ripe for the picking.