just over 1% of all physicians nationally have such visas, as there is such a shortage of doctors; the same cannot be said about STEM professionals as reported by Robert Charette: " Economic boom-and-bust volatility imposes large fluctuations in STEM hiring and employment.

* In general, there's no STEM worker shortage.

*There's no general rise in STEM salaries, as would be expected during a shortage.

"What's perhaps most perplexing" about the shortage claim, Charette writes, "is that many studies have directly contradicted it, including reports from Duke University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Rand Corp. A 2004 Rand study, for example, stated that there was no evidence 'that such shortages have existed at least since 1990, nor that they are on the horizon.'"

Charette cites a government report saying that the US spends more than $3 billion annually on 209 STEM-related initiatives—about $100 for each student above primary school. Corporations, states, and educational institutions also conduct STEM initiatives. "The result," he concludes, "is that many people's fortunes are now tied to the STEM crisis, real or manufactured."

Charette suggests possible explanations for the situation. Companies benefit from a labor oversupply. Government perceives a need to ensure that innovation takes place and that the country is technologically well defended. Universities benefit from demand—and subsidies—for STEM education." The explanation was well understood by Rabbi Marx ,when he wrote that in order to suppress wages, capitalist need an army of the unemployed.