[Someone1234]

That's fair.

But for the individual with a massive student loan and no way to repay it is a problem even if they better the world overall.

Part of the problem is that for some majors supply massively exceeds demand. Stem definitely isn't immune from this issue.

Unfortunately due to politics nobody (schools or government) is up-front about where jobs exist and shortages occur. A lot of the time when you hear about a "shortage" it is actually just whining that wages are too high.

[dragonwriter]

> Unfortunately due to politics nobody (schools or government) is up-front about where jobs exist and shortages occur. A lot of the time when you hear about a "shortage" it is actually just whining that wages are too high.

There's no absolute fixed quantity of any good or service (including labor in particular job roles) that is "correct"; "shortage" and "market clearing cost higher than I prefer" are actually equivalent concepts, not things that people misleading conflate.

[dagw]

The other problem is one of lag. It takes 4-6 years between choosing a school/degree and applying for your first job. There may very well be a genuine shortage in your chosen field when you start college, but that is no guarantee that there will still be one when you start applying for jobs.