And this is why I went the way that I did. Unfortunately, I'm from what's practically extreme poverty in the U.S., I'm sure a large amount of Mech and Elec EE's (or engineers in general) aren't exactly from upper class wealth...
And, guess what. I'm young, the planet is on fire and only getting worse, and it's beyond obvious that nothing is going to change that within my lifetime. That's a singular of many issues. The only way to insulate yourself from a lifetime of suffering from this is by money, and lots of it. Definitely not with what even senior ME's or EE's make.
To imagine a young student would choose to go one route because it's fun or their passion instead of a route that will somewhat secure their future at this point is asinine, and it's going to completely fuck industry over (as if it's not already) when there's a lack of capable engineers in other disciplines than SWE
You're assuming that the degree has anything to do with the work. The vast majority of things I've been paid to do in the course of my life have had little to do with the subjects of my degrees. That said, because I have a bachelor's in English and master's in Math Education and Fiction Writing (two separate degrees, not one weird interdisciplinary one), there are fields that I cannot hope to break into. No one will hire me to be their chemist or auto mechanic with my credentials. Programming is probably the easiest field for someone with no paper credentials to get into out of all the highly paid careers.