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U.S. Science Gap Fictional?
James Cho writes "There are more science and engineering students than ever, says one Newsweek journalist. Inflated counts of Chinese and Indian students have created the myth of the U.S. science gap. While no gap exists yet, an exodus of retiring U.S. scientists could create one." From the article: "...a country's capacity for scientific and commercial innovation does not correlate directly with its number of scientists and engineers. Hard work, imagination and business practices also matter."
Perhaps you should read my post again.
convince a prospective wife to overlook his scientist-ic geekiness and marry him.
On the other hand, someone who would have a wife like this probably shouldn't be a scientist/engineer in the first place either.
KFG
Scientists (and engineers aren't exactly scientists) study problems that interest them. They would study these problems while working as a patent clerk, or a food prep in a hotel, or a "real" scientist in a lab. Whether they get paid for their work is not a concern.
Scientists who get PhDs found a problem that seriously interested them in college, and continued to study it; generally not worrying about the money. These are the scientists who do things that really and truly matter.
"Scientists" who look at the earnings potential for a PhD in physics and decided to go for that and then look for a job, aren't.
The median real estate broker makes about the equivalent of minimum wage. The ones that make the big bucks are a small minority in the profession, and they generally bring personal assets that aren't common, and aren't the product of "a few months' night classes." The pay distribution is pretty similar to that of writers -- sure there are a few writers who make millions of dollars for what's for them pretty easy work, but the median income for writers from their writing similary is not even a living wage. The ones who make the big money in writing, like the big money real estate brokers, may have gotten a minimal education in their craft which helped, but the main thing is a natural talent for it.
The difference with engineering is that those without a real aptitude for it, if they work hard enough and pursue enough years of education, can still get decent-paying work in the field. Still, even in engineering it's the people with natural talent who take most of the big financial rewards -- often rewards in the same ballpark as top realtors and writers.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton