Education of all types (all majors) ise useful in theory, but in today's world, the reality is that one must have a set of abilities that creates large amounts of value.
Yes, its great if youre well read in classic East-Asian Literature... and can impart wisdom from that, but what does t enable you to do if youre not cut-out to go for a PhD in same? Not a whole lot.
Same deal with Biology majors. In my graduating class, there were more biology majors than anything. OK, it is an interesting science, I dont deny that... but of the thousands that graduate with that major, a LOT will not go to grad school for a Ph.D or a medical degree, and many would not care to become a teacher. So, they can become the manager at wal-mart, same as if they had any other degree.
In my opinion, 'fluff' degrees should have some form of weighing as far as their value goes. A 'standard' course of study should be along the lines of a mathematics major, which, though it may not have that wonderful an applicability to the outside world either, at least imparts some analytical and logical skills that the majority of people are sorely missing these days.
MANY people want the path of least resistance to get their slip of paper. This is part of the reason why society, despite the gobs and gobs of excellent knowledge that exists, gets dumber each passing day. It is unfortunate, but people should either be on an advanced degree track, a technical track (including engineers, accountants, medical professionals, etc), or else be stuck doing math. Underwater basketweaving is not a particularly useful sort of major.
Otherwise, I agree with Kestas. Trade schools are underappreciated, and yet extremely ueful in creating specialists in fields that are not ging to go away anytime soon, and which often truly skilled professionals are in short supply. The only problem that I know of is that if education is proportional to earning power, and you have a really good, fully trained plumber, trying to make an equivalent wage... some people fuss about the fact that a aborer such as that can be pulling in more per hour than the person paying for the work does... Ive heard that gripe endless times,but often it also comes back to what said person did in colege, and how useful a major they had - and thus how well they can execute what they have been charged to do in an efficient way that creates more value and makes them worth their pay... nobody can deny that when your toilet is overflowing, that the 'uneducated' plumber is creating a LOT more value, with his obviously superior skillset, than Ms. Underwater basketweaver college grad,
JMH