Unlike law and medicine, software engineering has yet to setup it's own guild that works to maintain its high salaries by gatekeeping entry into the profession with endless hoops to jump through and student loans to laden yourself with. It's relatively meritocratic and in many cases you don't even need a degree at all if you can otherwise prove you can do the work. Sometimes those people are even better than the degree holders who may have just been really good at checking boxes in school rather than learning.

Don't worry though, I think quite a few in the field now are ready and willing to start pulling up the ladder they elevated their lives with.

Maybe because HN is skewed towards CS topics. But I agree, there are other careers that I think deserves attention for the benefit of society besides trying to cram everyone into an IT career.

I keep reading of shortages in medical and trades fields. If we are short CS degree holders for the benefit of society, simply pivot them to meaningful software work rather then driving clicks.

As a parent member of a PTA, I can say most parents I speak with or attend the meetings demand coding, robotics and chess as part of the curriculum. My questions about increasing arts, drama, music, natural sciences, mindfulness, civics, etc etc are usually met with polite nods and comments along the lines of "I thought you said you have a science PhD and worked at like Cal Tech or something?"

So, supply and demand and a total lack of appreciation of non-tech fields

Don't you know?

Everyone with a 3 month bootcamp can be an engineer now!