The point I'm trying to make is that many so called "useless" degrees DO give you job skills, and may actually prepare you better to excel than a so-called useful degree. Because they teach you generally applicable skills, AND make you a more rounded, educated person.
There are several separate issues here:
1) The idea that everyone HAS to have a 2 or 4 year degree, let alone a liberal arts degree, to be employable is driving a lot of people who do not really WANT further education and thus aren't going to benefit from it to rack up debt and waste time. If you aren't a student, if you do not want to LEARN, do yourself and everyone else a favor and go to a trade school. Or apprentice to a plumber. Save everyone some pain and do not major in the social sciences or the humanities and whine and sleep through class.
2) I've taken social science classes at a local college (while I was in high school) and I've taken them at two very good universities. Majoring in philosophy at the local community college IS a waste . .. because they teach at a low level . . . memorizing the opinions of philosophers (or points of religious doctrine) and taking multiple choice tests is useless (includng if you want to be a philosopher, I might add) But taking it at a good school (I'm speaking here about anthropology and religious studies . . . I've never actually taken a philosophy class) is a way to practice vital skills in reading, writing, analysis, critical thinking, etc . . skills that people who are going to work in information economy jobs must have. It doesn't matter if you got those skills as an English major, a Philosophy major, and Anthropology major, or as a Vital Information Age Skills major. Except that the person who majored in English, Philosophy or Anthropology learned something ELSE too, something about our society, or about the world, or about themselves. God help us all if everyone who isn't rich is forced to only learn "useful" skills, because everyone automatically assumes that being a philosophy major means all you can do is philosophize. I call absolute, and total B.S. on that, at least if they attended a good school. I did not learn the skills that landed me a job at a high-ranked law firm in law school . . . I learned those basic skills as a religious studies major, in my "useless" degree. I learned a lot of other things as well. And I am VERY glad I did not major in "pre-law."
3) We do need to stop telling kids who major in these things that they can become philosophers, or scholars of religion, or anthropologists. They can't. Moreover, most of them don't actually WANT to when they find out what is involved. They are at college to become educated and to learn useful skills . . . and to do so within a program that teaches them something interesting at the same time. They are there to become educated adults . . . who have focused on some course of study that interests them. They are not there, by and large, to become philosophers.
4) I hate focused degrees that teach someone to do something specific and nothing else. Yes, there are times when that is useful. But by and large, an 18 year old isn't going to be able to know either what they want to do, or what will be in demand, 4 years later. Unless they are going into a technical field, they need general skills that can be used in any job. Golf course management should not be a major . . . business management is (although I feel much the same about a lot of business degrees as I do about pre-law . . . )
