> Most of the decisions people make in the US around careers has more to do with image than it does with financial sense.

I've thought the same thing about this, it's kind of depressing. It's like science and tech are both stigmatized. These are fields that have to compensate well, because if they didn't, very few people would take interest in them

And I don't think the problem is under-funding of stem, it's more cultural

I shouldn't be complaining from a money standpoint, but from a national standpoint it's probably bad for places like the DoD which hire mostly domestic citizens

There was a TV show around two decades ago called “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire” where women competed to “marry a millionaire”. The contestants did not know the identity of the millionaire but reportedly received two guarantees: a) he had a net worth over $2 million and b) did not work in tech. As I recall the guy turned out to be a “real estate investor” who had made about $3 million flipping houses in those frothy years of the pre-2008 housing market.