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<p>It’s not distressing only to me. I think it should be distressing to all of us - and indeed, is. After all, engineers are the backbone of the nation’s technological and innovation base. Barack Obama himself stated that he would like more talented kids, rather than become bankers, to become engineers - that is, to actually work as engineers and not just earn engineering degrees and then become bankers. David Cameron and other leaders of the UK have publicly lamented the erosion of British technological leadership as, in recent history, the best students in the UK would rather become financiers rather than engineers, which surely goes a long way towards explaining the current travails in the British economy, and frankly, the American economy as well. </p>
<p>But that all speaks to a far larger point, which is that I believe that engineers in the US are vastly underappreciated, not only in terms of pay but also in terms of social respect. Engineers produce tremendous value, but they capture relatively little of that value, the bulk of it instead being taken by investors and financiers. IBM, Intel, HP, General Electric are some of the most profitable firms in the world - far more so than many of the Wall Street banks, yet relatively few of the profits accrue to the engineers who are the source of that profit. {Put another way, without the new microprocessor innovations developed by their engineers every day, Intel would rapidly cease to exist as a going concern, yet Intel engineers are not particularly well paid.}</p>
<p>What I advocate is that engineers be better paid, to a level commensurate to the tremendous value they provide to society. Frankly, I’m surprised that posters here would continue to object so vociferously. You all truly don’t want higher pay? {Hey, for those of you who truly don’t want higher pay, you are always welcome to send it to me, as I’ll happily cash your checks.}</p>