[CWuestefeld]

We've got piles of people with degrees in <SomeGroup> Studies, working as waiters and waitresses. The money that was spent housing and feeding them as students for 4+ years, paying the professors and administrators, could have been used more productively in some other pursuit. As you note, it's not quite equivalent to burning the money. But it's still a net loss, and given its size, it's not insignificant.