Lately, I’ve been writing about the labor “gluts” that have built up in some of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines. These gluts have caused such mischief as driving down the average starting salary for chemistry majors with bachelor’s degrees so that they earn the same as recent sociology grads. The existence of these gluts contradicts the conventional wisdom that we need more STEM graduates to compete in the global economy.
Now I tackle that conventional wisdom head on, discussing how the same people that gave you the big-government welfare state that is working so well also have an utopian vision of the economy when it comes to education. This vision — of a futuristic technological paradise — guarantees such labor gluts and ignores real opportunities that are right in front of us today.