[currymj]

Some would say the elites in Great Britain simply don't have any respect for scientific knowledge -- this has been argued going back to CP Snow's "Two Cultures" essay. Everybody in power did PPE or whatever and being an engineer is low-status. This could be the case in the rest of Europe.

[mcv]

Netherland seems to be mostly a management culture. Managers, even bad ones, get paid more than programmers. Careers that people choose for money are manager, physician and lawyer. Economics is popular since it's assumed to lead to a management career. We do get some good tech, but it's not rewarded the way it is in the US.