We've shot ourselves in the foot by allowing the "blue collar" labor pool to age out, while every liberal public-ed teacher convinces their class that college is the only way to a decent future.
Now we have a glut of millennials and zoomers with near-worthless clinical psych masters degrees, and no one to pour concrete, install guardrails, or lay pipeline. Well, except for the modern day acceptable slave trade known as illegal immigration.
Buh muh STEM...