Most people do not have the necessary personality type/abilities/interest to do well in STEM. Doing a STEM degree is not enough on its own to get the STEM payof

Most people do not have the necessary personality type/abilities/interest to do well in STEM. Doing a STEM degree is not enough on its own to get the STEM payoff. To be clear, I am not saying that STEM makes people miserable by default, just that a minority of the population enjoys such things. However the low percentage of STEM degrees can also be explained by the fact that the college lifestyle is an institution of its own in the US. Therefore more people who won't necessarily stand to benefit from college will attempt it, and they are more likely to pick easier majors (which are overwhelmingly non-STEM)