On the other hand, I am taken aback by the constant harping of you and others about college degrees that do not lead directly to careers. Do you not understand that higher education has value in and of itself in that it teaches and explains the western civilization values we have all inherited? These values are precious and should be transmitted to the next generation (and these values are of such complexity that they are lost on high-school level students).
Sometimes, one of these useless college majors does translate into lucrative careers. I cannot prove it but I have seen references that many of those well-compensated people on Wall Street have liberal arts degrees. The curriculum of the liberal arts college did not teach them finance but it taught them how to think and gave them a patina of “sophistication” (for lack of a better term) that enabled them to relate to others in that environment.
And as for those who seek job training, why not do away with all those useless liberal arts courses and set up, say, Institutes of Engineering, and teach engineering and only engineering? Sure, the graduates will come out stone cold ignorant of the workings of the world, but damn it, they'll know engineering, which is all that a lot of them wanted to know.
Kinda like medical schools and law schools? Prime examples of job training schools.
Sorry, but seeing and hearing what comes out of academia today, I just don't see what precious values that ".....we have all in herited" you are talking about. As to those values being "transmitted to the next generation", I look at the 2008 election and groups like OWS and just shake my head.
But then again, I only hold a 50 year old HS diploma, so this all must be far too complex for me to understand.....sigh