NinetyWt- Yes, the stats do interest me, especially in light of the Dept. of Labor’s use of the term to include 1,815,000 people. How many licensed PE’s are there in the US?
Shouldn’t the penalty phase wait until after the jury renders a verdict? 
Seriously, I don’t see how the penalties for violation are relevant to this particular discussion. Make it punishable by death, for all I care. (Though, if you really want my opinion, the penalty should be substantial. I am sure there are additional penalties which the law provides should actual injury result from misrepresentation, and this may be why the penalties sometimes seem light.)
My reading of the Kansas statute is that use of the term “engineer” is not by itself restricted. Going back to the OP, it seems this also the case in Alberta (the key phrase being “that represents expressly or by implication that he is a professional engineer”). I now count it as four known states and Alberta where one may refer to oneself as an engineer so long as it is not being used to dupe anyone into believing you are a PE. (Though the possibility does exist that in Canada, engineer is commonly used to mean PE and therefore implies such (much like doctor is used to mean MD), but I doubt it.)
First, I agree the analogy with doctor isn’t exact. Engineer has a wider range of meanings (in the dictionary sense) than doctor does. Which is exactly why it makes less sense for its usage to be more restricted than the use of “doctor”.
Do you really think that most people don’t know that there are doctors other than MD’s? I really doubt it (in fact, I doubt that you believe that). Their usage of doctor is a result of the fact that for most people, a Medical Doctor is the type of doctor they most commonly deal with. When the average person talks about a doctor, 99 times out of 100 (probably more!) they will be talking about an MD, so there isn’t a need to be more specific. I don’t think using the more familiar “doctor” to refer to MD’s prevents people from recognizing that these people are Medical Doctors, or that if they aren’t there are serious legal ramifications should they practice medicine. Nor does it keep them from recognizing and understanding that Dr. Whatsisname that teaches intro to Philosophy at the local community college (more than likely) is a PhD and not an MD. And I don’t think anyone is confused into thinking that the guy from Lawn Doctor who cuts their grass is either one.
Similarly, it is possible that there are some groups of people who deal mostly (or nearly exclusively) with PE’s. When they talk about engineers, most of the time they mean PE. So for them, the terms are used synonymously. This is reasonable, but I don’t think it is reasonable to expect other people, who rarely encounter PE’s, to use the term this way. Nor should it prevent either group from understanding that, like most words in English, there are multiple applications for the word, and meaning can be derived from context. Where context is insufficient, the less generic terms can be used.
Can it create confusion? Well, a lot of would-be comedians (e.g., disk jockeys) wouldn’t have much to say if it didn’t. But their material isn’t limited to this one word, and it doesn’t mean it always creates confusion.
Does this really happen (and how often)?? I mean, how stupid do you have to be to not know the difference between a 4 year degree and a 7 week certification, regardless of what name they go by? Doesn’t the fact that one is called a degree and the other a certificate tip them off at all?? Why would they say they are the same thing when nowhere in MCSE does the word “degree” appear? These are probably the same people who think AOL is the internet. I fear that no amount of clarification of terms or rewording is going to help with them. So long as they aren’t the people doing the hiring, why worry about it? (And if they are, you probably don’t want to work for them.)
There will always be stupid people. Unfortunately you can’t get rid of them by legislation.
