I understand your points completely. I often work for a senior executive, extremely sharp, who had a history degree (many years ago), and can cut through mathematical analysis like a knife though butter.
Some degrees are a prerequisite for a license to practice in a particular area (engineering, law, medicine, etc). All degrees, to some extent, help employers solve an information problem—hence the marketability factor of a degree.
Look, it’s not my fault that liberal arts faculty are overrun by left wing loons who no longer teach critical thought and logical discourse. One does not need math to have a logical mind or make a sophisticated argument, take for example Ronald Coase, however, it is the case that to the extent logic is taught at universities today, one is more likely to find it in fields with a concentration of math.
[Please accept my apology if I sound obnoxious, condescending or rude. It’s really not my intent. I have enjoyed the chat very much.]
Indeed, the professions you list (law, medicine, engineering) do require training and colleges prepare students to acquire the credentials to practice these professions. But it’s not education as I (and others) perceive it. At this point the colleges are playing the role of trade schools. Medicine, particularly, fits this role. It’s high-level trade school.
Your point about the loony-tunes who have taken over the liberal arts colleges is well-taken. I sincerely doubt that I could have endured their preaching to me. Often, the political viewpoints of the college professors I was lucky to have were, for the most part, unknown. No preaching.
In closing, I wish to point out that the explosion, if you will, in the number of students going to college is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971). The Court held that aptitude (intelligence) tests were discrimatory toward minorities and could not be administered as a requirement for employment. That put an end to employers’ use of these tests to weed out unsuitable candidates. So, they turned to the college degree as a substitute for these tests, believing that a college degree indicated a person had a certain level of intelligence to have mastered a college curriculum.
It was a pleasure to have discussed this subject with you. I did not detect any rudeness on your part.