Let's cut through the shit and get to the real story behind America's "engineering shortage." The problem isn't only that our education system is a complete fucking failure; it's that we've fine-tuned it to produce exactly the kind of workforce billionaires wanted. We've got a pipeline that’s less of a talent conduit and more of leaking fire hose.

The Glorified Daycare: Education by Standardized Test

Our K-12 system, the supposed bedrock of a technical society, is less a foundation and more of a shitshow. We have kids who go to extracurricular classes to learn how to ace a standardized test on particle physics but couldn't tell you the first thing about a wrench. We've managed to turn science and math into a joyless exercise in memorization, sapping all the creativity and curiosity out of learning.

The real goal isn't to create thinkers, it's to create test-takers, and we're succeeding wildly at it. Why would a bright-eyed kid want to spend their life solving complex, messy problems when they've been trained their whole life to fill in bubbles?

The College Conundrum: A Degree in Debt

For the brave few who make it through high school with their curiosity intact, the next challenge is an engineering degree. It's a grueling, expensive marathon, and the sad truth is that a significant number of graduates emerge from it with a shiny new piece of paper and a mountain of debt, but not the practical skills that companies claim to need.

While our post-grad programs are sought after worldwide, our basic universities are fabulous at teaching theory but fall short on the hands-on, real-world application. It's a place where you'll learn all the formulas you could ever want but might not learn how to use any relevant industry software. By the time you've finally graduated and are ready to apply for a job, you're a walking, talking theory book in a world that needs a practical Swiss Army knife.

But HR departments are trained to deal with this. College was nothing but a four year keg party and a psy-ops test in compliance. They know damn well a tenth grader could do the job you applied for. They know you know nothing, and you’ll learn everything you need to know on the job.

The Corporate Catch-22: The Race to the Bottom

And this brings us to the real punchline: the corporate world. The very same companies that loudly lament the "talent shortage" are often the ones actively creating it. They claim they can't find qualified American workers, but what they really mean is they can't find qualified American workers willing to work for peanuts.

The H-1B visa program, which is sold as a tool to bring in the world's "best and brightest," is routinely used to bring in foreign engineers at a fraction of the cost. The Department of Labor's "prevailing wage" is a joke, a laughably low bar that allows companies to pay foreign workers significantly less than their American counterparts for the exact same job. It's a beautiful, self-serving system. Corporations don't have to invest in training the domestic workforce because they can just import cheap labor.

This depresses wages and makes engineering a less attractive career path for bright American students. As a result, the number of qualified domestic engineers stagnates, which then gives companies even more reason to claim a "shortage" and demand more visas.

It's a self-perpetuating cycle of corporate greed and strategic underinvestment.

So, when you hear a billionaire complain that America "doesn't have enough qualified engineers," just remember what they're really saying: "We've created a system that makes it more profitable to import talent than to develop our own, and now we're complaining about the perfectly predictable result." It's not a failure of our education system alone; it's a failure of corporate responsibility and a national commitment to our own workforce.

Our federal government is supposed to recognize scams like this and protect us. But there’s something peculiar about our current government. Do you know what it is?

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