> They don't pay enough for you to ever own a house in a desirable place;
I know plenty of people who took pay cuts to work in cleared jobs at Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. If you're talented, you can make a lot in the defense and intelligence community.
> and your sensitive data will get hacked by China anyway
Hacked? No. Most sensitive data is kept on air-gapped networks. Not really hackable. Can be exfiltrated, sure, but that's part of the point of the extensive background checks.
> it's assumed that you don't know "foreign persons" (hint: This is actually now a mark of the lower-class and uneducated.)
Not even remotely true. You do have to report contacts you know to be non-US citizens, but that's not disqualifying. I knew someone who filled out over 200 pages of foreign contact forms, and still obtained TS/SCI clearance.
> a software engineer without an advanced degree is basically nobody
Not accurate. Most people I knew in the cleared space didn't even have computer science degrees; most of us had bachelor's degrees in unrelated subjects, many even non-STEM (several history/English degrees).
> cloud stuff is mostly off limits
Somewhat true, but surely you're aware of AWS and Azure building out substantial private clouds for intelligence and defense customers?
> work may happen in windowless rooms
Rarely. Most SCIFs have windows, in my experience.
> perks are non-existent
Depends on the employer. But sure.
> and it's embarrassing to answer "so what do you do for a living" if you're trying to exist in blue-state society.
I did cleared work in Seattle. I don't think I've ever voted Republican. I've voted Green on a number of occasions. Same story for most of my coworkers. The most left-leaning people I know never had an issue with my job.
I think there are two ways of thinking about this: First, your presence there means someone more conservative isn't there, and you can maybe effect some small change. Second, any job at a sufficiently large corporation is ultimately killing people, even if indirectly; there's no way you can work to enrich billionaires at the expense of the working class and feel like you're contributing to the net good of society unless you're engaging in some serious cognitive dissonance. At least, IMO.