The existing bar for requiring occupational licensing is way to low and abused by rent seeking cartels. (Eg funeral planners, cosmetology industry, unarmed security guards, animal trainers, etc etc...)

Is there really overwhelming societal benefit for establishing licensing for software engineers? Are we not already paying enough for the role in general?

I can look at most mechanical design, and find multiple flaws. I can look at a car and see fatal flaws. Do the mechanical engineers at Tesla have different individual legal liability from software engineers for design flaws? All Engineers make safety compromises all the time.

Sure, some software is shit, but plenty of software is also solidly engineered. Plenty of other engineers do shit work too - we generally only hear about the most egregious failures.

From what I see, other engineers now depend on the software models they use. CAD, structural, circuit design, everything. Get over it.

I think the definition of engineering is making good compromises. It isn’t about safety. Plenty of other disciplines work without liability producing shonky outputs. Safety is just another compromise.

A federal court disagree with you:

    “Courts have long recognized that the term ‘engineer’ has a generic meaning separate from ‘professional engineer,’” the court reasoned, and the word engineer “cannot become inherently misleading simply because a state deems it so.”

    “In a free society, government agencies do not have the authority to rewrite the dictionary. Oregon cannot declare the word ‘engineer’ off-limits to the thousands of Oregonians who, like Mats, are engineers.”

    mid-14c., enginour, "constructor of military engines," from Old French engigneor "engineer, architect, maker of war-engines; schemer" (12c.), from Late Latin ingeniare (see engine); general sense of "inventor, designer" is recorded from early 15c.; civil sense, in reference to public works, is recorded from c. 1600 but not the common meaning of the word until 19c (hence lingering distinction as civil engineer). Meaning "locomotive driver" is first attested 1832, American English.

Disclaimer: I have an Electrical & Electronic Engineering Degree.

Edit: oh, and the certification of engineers becomes somewhat irrelevant when they are from outside your jurisdiction. Most imported goods and services contain engineering decisions where liability is dealt with through other legal means than certification. Certification matters in only a few engineering disciplines. In Christchurch where I live, a building collapsed in the 2010 Earthquake, and the civil engineer hasn’t had any formal penalties. He also designed some fibreglass roofs for sewage treatment plant, and the roofs caught fire a few years back and that has caused a heap of trouble! https://www.engineeringnz.org/news-insights/ctv-alan-reay-co... As a generalisation NZ is not a very litigious society, and less punishment focused than say the US which has 4x the incarceration rate (people in prison).