The Value of School -- STEM training?

For me, as an advocate of STEM schooling (actually STEAM schooling because I think the arts should stay in), this is an uncomfortable argument... Advocating More STEM Training Misses the Point

You report that Mexico is now successful at producing lots of engineering graduates, but so far unsuccessful at employing this talent in ways that unleash substantial economic growth (“Mexico is now a top producer of engineers, but where are jobs?” Oct. 29). Herein lies an important economic lesson: those who wish to promote genuine economic growth must more carefully distinguish cause from effect.

Well, actually I'd say that to have a successful market in engineering skills, you have to have both supply and demand, and it would be a good idea to know which is the limiting factor at any given moment. I do believe that the US and the world could do better with a whole lot more technical people, but that doesn't mean that the US or the world would be better off if we simply did a whole lot more technical training. "Would you like fries with that?" is often described as the key question resulting from a liberal arts education, but it could also come out of a technical education if it's the wrong technical education for the social and economic (and government) environment. STEM training may not be valuable in itself -- like anything else, it's valuable in the right context.

So, maybe the crucial education which is now missing is in fact economics. Yesterday I drove four hundred miles, going to and from the George Washington Bridge Plaza in Fort Lee to collect my son, who walked across the bridge. His friend who would have brought him half-way would not have been allowed back in without getting more passengers, which he wasn't sure he could do -- so he considered having a couple of more friends just go for a ride out and back, which is an amusing incentives puzzle, but it wasn't necessary. For the last hundred miles, gas shortages were obvious, and when I stopped at the Plaza two girls asked me if I knew where they could get gas -- we were almost right across from a gas station which had a "No Gas" sign but people waiting anyway. Here's the situation: Gasoline Runs Short, Adding Woes to Storm Recovery - NYTimes.com

The ports and refineries that supply much of the region’s gas had been shut down in advance of the storm and were damaged by it. That disrupted deliveries to gas stations that had power to pump the fuel. But the bigger problem was that many stations and storage facilities remained without power.
Politicians were scrambling Thursday to increase the supply of fuel — the Port of New York and New Jersey opened just enough to allow boats carrying gas to move, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey waived restrictions that make it harder for stations to buy gas from out-of-state suppliers. Mr. Christie’s office had warned that price gougers would be prosecuted, but drivers were reporting that some stations were charging more than $4 a gallon, even though the state had set gas prices at $3.59 on the highways last week.

In other words, the shortage was generated (as shortages usually are) by price controls. In MyersWorld, the initial hurricane warnings would have mentioned "In the event of storm damage, gas prices will probably rise astronomically" so people would have filled up, just in case, and companies would have brought trucks full of gas (and generators capable of running a gas station) fairly close, just in case -- and the "No Gas" signs would have been signs saying "$10/gallon", or even more, until the supply rose, thus providing incentives for conservation and for re-supply.... There would not have been any shortage. Nobody would have been short of gas....of course some people would be short of money and it might be government policy to help some of them out. (Markets are good at resource allocation, but not at income redistribution, and sometimes redistribution is a good thing.) But as Wikipedia puts it Economic shortage

Economic shortages are related to price—when the price of an item is set below the going rate determined by supply and demand, there will be a shortage.

Maybe we have a shortage of STEM/STEAM graduates...
Or then again, maybe not.