Re:The STEM Crisis Is a Myth (2013)
by dragonwriter on Friday February 03, 2017 @03:04PM
(#13562805)
> Any lack of developers we have today doesn't come from them choosing other occupations because programming doesn't pay the bills
I dunno, I hear a lot about people who are qualified and experienced software developers moving to other fields, particularly finance and non-technical management, because they can get paid better, or leaving work entirely because no o e is offering enough to make it worthwhile for them not to just live off their savings (and not just hear about, I know people in the last category.)
The idea that there isn't potential talent in the field that could be accessed by paying more is false. Obviously, employers prefer not to do that, because every dollar paid to an employee is a dollar the employer doesn't keep.
>
We just have way too many people getting paid a lot less, or unemployed altogether, that either can't afford the retraining to be programmers, or just. can't do it altogether.
To the extent that there is a "can't afford" problem here, and this really is an undesirable situation demanding a public policy response, the solution is obvious from the statement of the problem, and it's not "import foreign workers".
I dunno, I hear a lot about people who are qualified and experienced software developers moving to other fields, particularly finance and non-technical management, because they can get paid better, or leaving work entirely because no o e is offering enough to make it worthwhile for them not to just live off their savings (and not just hear about, I know people in the last category.)
The idea that there isn't potential talent in the field that could be accessed by paying more is false. Obviously, employers prefer not to do that, because every dollar paid to an employee is a dollar the employer doesn't keep.
> We just have way too many people getting paid a lot less, or unemployed altogether, that either can't afford the retraining to be programmers, or just. can't do it altogether.
To the extent that there is a "can't afford" problem here, and this really is an undesirable situation demanding a public policy response, the solution is obvious from the statement of the problem, and it's not "import foreign workers".