Say what you will, but the middle class needs work. We need something for the vast majority of people who aren't scientists, engineers or politicians to do.

Oh please. We can just put everyone to work in retail sales and real estate. We'll all get rich selling houses to each other!

Well then, somebody needs to tell the media, because they sure do like treating it as a common noun.

Today's media can't even spell words properly or use proper grammar; it shouldn't be too surprising that they'd screw up Tesla's factory name.

Factories need industrial engineers, not just assembly-line workers. No, you don't need a ton of IEs to run a factory, but still, there's some there. You also need engineers to do the design, testing, etc. (though some of that may be at their main location in California).

All missiles have civilian applications: governments can use them to blow up civilians, and malcontent citizens who can get their hands on the can use them to blow up governments.

And other governments are always there to provide missiles to the malcontents.

Once it's built it will probably only employee low-paid assembly line workers and some managers.

(Which isn't STEM, but may still be an improvement on the way the USA has been hedded for the past few decades.)

I'm about two year in (two weeks shy) and my last check (last month) said 8-9 more years at the rate I'm using it. I was told at installation that five is the average. I think the only time I'm paced any more is when I sleep, just due to my natural sleeping rate being lower than the floor they've set. I'll have to ask.

Used the card about a week after I got it due to my place of employment at the time. Haven't used it at an airport.

A factory that makes giants.

Anyone can get a sweetheart deal in Nevada. Microsoft and Amazon are already firmly established their.

Nevada's economy is so weak that there was once serious consideration of reverting its rushed statehood.

110V is annoying to work with because it has so many restrictions. It's no safer than 230V and coupled with more lax wiring regulations you have a much higher rate of electrocutions in the USA than in the EU.

Correlation =/= causation. The higher electrocution rate is probably just because Americans are stupider than Europeans....

More seriously, I imagine electrocutions have fallen greatly with the mandating of GFCI outlets in bathrooms and kitchens, with the problem being that only new construction has these unless someone has gone to the trouble of retrofitting them in older homes. Perhaps in the EU they were more aggressive about getting these upgraded. In the US, it's basically impossible to force people to upgrade anything; you can probably still legally use knob-and-tube wiring if that's what your house came with.

It's also substantially more labour cost to install, test and maintain.

I don't know about your house, but I've never, ever, ever had to do "maintenance" on house wiring. It usually stays in there for decades without being touched.

FWIW, the wiring in your "high power" circuits is much heavier than is used in most european circuits

Yes, but not only that, it's usually aluminum wire.

Cucumber factory only has stem-removal jobs.

Are you saying you drive a Karma?

I agree. Say NO to those linguogogues and their linguomorphic practices!!!

The premise in the summary is wrong. Employers have not learned that actual skill outweighs the fact that someone survived college.

The fact is that such a degree in no way indicates that obtaining it involved actually learning what was presented for longer than it takes to pass the relevant examinations.

On the other hand, if the programmer presents a series of complex projects they have completed, this does positively indicate they have both the knowledge (what the degree should attest to, but really doesn't rise to the challenge) and the ability to employ that knowledge (which the degree does not assure anyone of, at all.) Those completed project should also serve to demonstrate that the required portions of theory have both been absorbed and implemented, presuming the project works well and as intended.

Employers and HR departments are rarely focused on actual performance, except in the very smallest of companies. Most use a combination of bean-counting, related age-discrimination, and the supposedly valuable rubber stamp of a degree to winnow out programming job applicants. After all, if said employee screws it up, that's the employee's fault. Not the HR person.

This, in fact, is why most corporate software goes out the door with so many problems, and it is also why those problems typically remain unfixed for very long periods of time.

It sure would be of great benefit to end users and companies if actual skill *did* outweigh a degree. But that's most definitely not happening. It's wishful thinking, that's all. And if you're an older programmer, even your sheepskin won't help you -- you cost too much, your health is significantly more uncertain, they don't like your familial obligations, they don't like your failure to integrate into "youth culture" as in no particular fascination with social media... or even your preference for a shirt and tie. Welcome to the machine. You put your hand in the gears right here. Unless you've enough of an entrepreneurial bent that you can go it on your own. In which case, I salute you and welcome you to the fairly low-population ranks of the escapees.