I’m an engineer, after 10 years I’m making 34K no benefits. I’m happy to be employed at all as there are hundreds of thousands of unemployed American engineers..

Engineering is a dead end for most. The MAJORITY (over 90% in some studies) of engineering graduates are NOT working as engineers!

Offshoring, outsourcing and cheap labor visas have ruined tech careers and American students have better opportunities that require less work and pay much better. Tech jobs tend to be concentrated in high cost of living areas and a 35 year old engineer is over the hill for most jobs (age discrimination is the rule not the exception in engineering)

Go to Rent A Coder: How Software Gets Done -- Home of the worlds' largest number of completed software projects and look how much the electrical engineers make(some of the jobs pay below minimum wage)