Posted on July 16, 2006  Comments (2)

Vivek Wadhwa again addresses the question: Engineering Gap? Fact and Fiction. This is a question that deserves a continued look – I still believe we do need more focus on educating more engineers:

From Vivek Wadhwa’s most recent article:

This is where things get very tricky I think. My belief is science and engineering professionals will provide more value to the economy overall. In a capitalist system we can’t dictate on high what the salaries will be. According to capitalist theory the government should regulate the market where positive or negative externalities exists.

So funding research that hires scientists and engineers, and provides many benefits to the economy, can make a great deal of sense. The belief in this is why so many countries are focusing on improving their science and engineering capabilities. Regulating salary levels though doesn’t seem like a reasonable option to me. Hopefully companies like Google that value engineers above all else will be copied as the marketplace realizes the market has systemically been under-valuing creative knowledge workers like engineers and overpaying others.

Related posts:

• Engineers once again are the top paid graduates
• Great ideas on creating a climate for scientific innovation to aid the economy
• Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering
• USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates