I think another factor contributing to this is a need to answer the question of how we can replace all of the jobs that we are losing due, primarily, to automat

I think another factor contributing to this is a need to answer the question of how we can replace all of the jobs that we are losing due, primarily, to automation. Because our society is built on the idea that work is the means to justify one's existence, we depend on the possibility of full employment. Therefore, when jobs go away, we have to make them up somewhere. As manufacturing shrinks and automation starts to chip at the large base of service jobs once thought safe, it is necessary that there be something to replace it. Enter STEM. Instead of assembly-line workers, customer service reps, and bank tellers, we will soon all be the scientists and engineers designing and servicing the grandiose machinery that now does most of the actual work.