One issue I have been hearing a lot of lately is the need for increased education in the areas of math and science. Sadly, I think at this time it is a waste of effort and money. The reason I say it is a waste of time and money is a very simple one, jobs. It can be assumed that the reason we want our children to become more adept in math and science is so they will choose a career in those areas and create new and innovative products and services and make the US a stronger and wealthier country.
At this time I cannot see any reason to encourage a young person to go into the sciences. First, most of the degree programs are difficult; rarely do you see the computer engineering guys partying at the bar next to the communications guys. Most science degrees take five years to complete due to the heavy load of classes required obtaining such a degree and because of this the degree costs more than other degrees and requires a high level of dedication. Secondly, once you get your degree the jobs are limited, have limited growth and don’t pay as well as one might expect. Since our country is producing less and less engineering has gone abroad with the products, why pay for a US engineer at 75,000 when you can pay for an Indian engineer for 10,000. If you do get a job, your growth potential is limited, you will most likely be doing the same job 30-40 years down the road. This is not necessarily a bad thing because engineers for the most part like to do engineering, but promotions are limited. Another issue is the additional foreign competition, not only have a lot of high-tech, engineering and R&D jobs been shipped overseas as stated earlier, but US worker must compete (and sometimes aren’t even allowed to compete) with the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in this country trying to get the limited jobs that are available. Finally, the wages do not reflect the effort and training involved. For example a good engineer at a large company can expect to make in the low 100Ks, the bonuses are low and raises are equally low. This is not a low wage by any means but it cannot compare to the sales person in the same company making 400-600K selling the products that the engineer created. One might say that if the engineer wanted to make more money that he should just go into sales. This only reinforced my point that encouraging our children to go into the math and sciences is a waste of time; until things change we should encourage our children to become sales people, stock brokers and managers.
So, what should we do to make the sciences more attractive to the youth of the U.S.? First, we need high paying jobs and lots of them. Eliminate or drastically reduce the H1-B program, this could open up 300K jobs immediately. Encourage via tax breaks and other incentives to design and create products here and tax products from companies with R&D in other countries. Finally, I would federally subsidize US students getting degrees in science and engineering.