Non credo che il discorso si applichi ad ogni mansione: in Italia, a mancare sono gli ingegneri, ; il problema . Negli USa, il Presidente Bush si e' la nciato in un paeana a favore di un programma che aumenti il numero di laureati in matematica. Ma e' davvero necessario?
Il Mises Institute osserva giustamente che il tasso di disoccupazione dei "post-dottori" in matematica e scienze e' piu' elevato che quello medio americano (al contrario ad esempio, di inegneri et simila); per chi sceglie la carriera accademica, le paghe sono minori rispetto a quelle di professori di altre aree.
Non siamo allora di fronte ad un caso di vantaggio comparato internazionale? Ossia: in realta', il numero di matematici richiesto dal settore privato non e' enorme e soprattutto, le paghe sono appetibili soltanto per laureati provenienti da paesi a reddito inferiore.
Il mercato funziona; lasciamolo continuare...
In any case, people who have studied this in detail have reached an inconclusive verdict, except to observe that current unemployment rates among math and science people with PhDs are higher than the general population.
Also, as Daniel Greenberg writes, "Average salary scales for professors show the marketplace value of different disciplines: law, $109,478; business, $79,931; biological and biomedical sciences, $63,988; mathematics, $61,761." He points out that the editor of Science Magazine even noted the absurdity: "Why do we keep wishing to expand the supply of scientists, even though there is no evidence of imminent shortages?"
Actually, Donald Kennedy's entire article is worth a read. He points out that the worst thing that could happen is for government to attract people into a technical field that they really can't handle. They only end up working outside the area in which they are trained, or adding to the ranks of the unemployed. The scientists themselves know how hard the job market is, and of course they don't want more people in their field driving down wages. But the point stands: if wages were high enough, good people would be attracted to these fields without subsidies, badgering, and lecturing.
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