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