[knieveltech]

Letting "the market" decide what is and isn't valuable in terms of human knowledge seems dubious at best. We are talking about a system that prioritizes extraction of non-renewable resources to produce dumb shit like bluetooth toothbrushes.

[mac01021]

"Value" is subjective - you or I might value a type of knowledge differently from the way the market does.

However, to the extent that a student is pursuing an education as a means to achieve employment and income, the value of a piece of knowledge to the student _is_ its value to the market.

[knieveltech]

That an education should be pursued primarily or solely as a means to achieve employment is even more dubious. Unless, of course, you're trying to claim that having a highly educated populace isn't, in and of itself, a Social Good?

[mac01021]

I'm not claiming that, or making any value proposition at all.

I'm saying IF your main or only goal is career advancement, THEN the value of a college education to you is the same as the value of that education to the market.

If you have other goals then by all means major in Theater, Filipino Literature, Marine Biology, or whatever major best suits your goals.

The GP's point, in the post you replied to above, is that you should not expect, having done that, to be able to easily repay a $100k loan.

Maybe your point is that we should, as a society, revise our scheme for funding people's educations, so that the pursuit of degrees in less lucrative fields is not such a burden. And if so, maybe you're right.

The fact is, though, a lot of college students have no clear goals. Maybe they want a job after they get out but don't know what. Or maybe their parents just expect them to get a degree but haven't given them much guidance in choosing a major. If such a student chooses "Communications" or English Lit just because it seems easier or somewhat more interesting than a more technical field, and they just have vague expectations of being better able to find employment having finished their degree, I don't think it qualifies as much of a social good for the student to get that education. I certainly don't want to pay for it in my tax dollars.