> what career path would you suggest, teacher or software developer?

Depends on what they like to do. There is a lot we can change so that people can do what they love without punishing careers that aren't directly tied to profit.

Or maybe extreme, frontier-inspired individualism went obsolete once the West was Won?

I’m all for smart people being paid well to work hard. But there has to be a better model. Perhaps something similar to the massive payouts we see lawyers getting in class action suits, except instead of law firms and defendants we have drug researchers and illnesses.

I mean, so you pay teachers more. Government jobs weren’t always vilified, nor heavily underfunded. The shift happened with Milton Friedman in the 60s and 70s.

A teacher can be a software developer as well.