[baytrailcat]

You cannot, as a culture, simultaneously underplay the importance of science and math education (nerds!!!) and complain when immigrants come in to occupy the high tech jobs. There is a big outrage about lack of high-paying jobs, yet there is rampant anti-intellectualism and discouragement of critical and analytical thinking which is needed for those jobs.

[untog]

I actually don't think "nerds!!!" is much of a thing any more - much of our cultural output is based around comic books and fantasy stories, the likes of which were regarded as nerdy persuits when I was a teenager.

I think people are happy to describe science and math education as important, they're just not happy to pay for it. Decades of underinvestment in public education results in undereducated people, but no-one wants to actually deal with the issue.

[karthikb]

Agree - "nerds" today may not necessarily be the coolest kids in the room, but they aren't typed as social outcasts either. This is of course location dependent.

[guitarbill]

I agree, and it is by no means exclusive to the US. It's lucky for the US that it's still in a position to easily lure people from almost every country.

And this won't chance too soon, most TV shows and films, e.g. Big Bang Theory, Mr. Robot, do nothing to normalise the perception of these kinds of jobs. Workers are always portrayed as weird/quirky/dysfunctional. The closest portrayal to normality has been the workers in Westworld. But those jobs weren't exactly aspirational either...

[WalterSear]

This has nothing to do with it. Minimizing salaries and a compliant workforce has everything to do with it.