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A comment on Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?. Parent comment

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by asdff on Thursday June 24, 2021 @01:17AM (#27614202)
Not every US STEM degree gets you a six figure job. STEM majors are some of the most awarded degrees in all colleges; there is a huge oversupply in the labor pool unless you are able to differentiate yourself which is not easy and usually requires post graduate education or nepotism. For the vast majority of STEM B.S. degrees, even a computer science degree in the midwest, you might be toiling for 60k-80k too. No one I knew who graduated in computer science in my undergrad has some glamorous bay area life today. Most ended up getting jobs in places like Nebraska or somewhere humid in the south writing terrible enterprise software and they complain to me how much it sucks. The bay area and that high income tech culture is a tiny little bubble, despite all the ink spilled over it.
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Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by flavius29663 on Thursday June 24, 2021 @06:38AM (#27615875)
I was talking about averages, you counter with a very specific example: midwest or southern states software devs.

I could counter with Italy, where you can call yourself lucky if you get 2000 Euros a month after taxes, as a senior dev. And it's not a particularly cheap country either.

I think it's more useful to look at averages, e.g. https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-sof...

Keep in mind that the sums are usually before tax. Income taxes in the US for a 100k salary can be as low as 10%. Add 5% for healthcare and you end up with 85% in your pocket. In Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, they will take 45-55% of your money, especially above 60k; so from a 60k salary in Germany you take home 30k.

I would say 30k vs 85k is a lot to make up the difference for "free" college and "free" healthcare.

If you could choose free university and then 50 years of 30k income VS 200k in debts and then 50 years of 85k income, what would you choose?

But again, my point is that the US education and healthcare have enough funding even with the lower taxation. Funding is not a problem, US has more or similar funding than other developed nations: healthcare, education, welfare benefits.

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Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by the_only_law on Thursday June 24, 2021 @01:20AM (#27614215)
> Most ended up getting jobs in places like Nebraska or somewhere humid in the south writing terrible enterprise software and they complain to me how much it sucks.

Hello, friend. No but seriously, if anyone has any good advice on how to escape this, I’m listening.

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