Is it? Some of the people who have made history have made our world worse, not better.
And all of them have been frustrated artists with no technical skills and thus no place in society and with no real idea or experience on what it takes to put food on the table, build homes, cure disease, or engage in commerce. They then engage in and create fantasies that then lead to catastrophe.
In general, I would say having an electorate that has focused its attention only making money/preparing for a specific career is not to our benefit--especially in times such as these in which politicians, talking heads and radio hosts regularly misrepresent our history and distort scientific evidence in order to manipulate public opinion.
Having a hard, objective education and extensive experience in industry does allow for one to carefully consider claims by any side and test them using verifiable means or other sources of information.
Who is more prepared to make judgments on what should be done in the future - a construction manager who puts up houses for a living or an artist who paints landscapes? The construction manager deals with subcontractors, the city planners, the banks, the weather, neighbors, and the new owners. The job requires good judgment, tact, ability to read people, and the ability to blend all these together. Who is a more informed voter? Its no contest.
DW's sister is in retail. She opens and manages stores for large clothing lines and juggles all kinds of stuff like the construction manager. She is also a gifted artist. But she got a degree in accounting while minoring in fine art. Her artistic skills allow her to set up the stores and manage the daily flow very well. It was her accounting skills that got her the first job and allowed her to focus on the other sides of the business.
Marketable skills are certainly important, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the value of a quality liberal arts education--or for that matter the similarly unprofitable fine arts degrees. One thing is certain: my kids would be a lot happier in school if they were able to immerse themselves in topics of interest to them instead of spending so much time "acquiring skills for the future".
At the end of the day those "skills for the future" are what puts food on the table and keeps the lights on. The emphasis on "liberal arts" rather than "skills for the future" has led us to a huge crisis not only in education ( the huge bubble which will burst) but economically where people are totally unemployable because they cannot work with their hands and minds on real things. Large segments of the population who are not polymathic have had their futures permanently damaged by not getting marketable skills.
This affects us all, too, because resources were used to teach them that are now wasted and these people cannot do something useful without retraining, if at all.
I would love nothing more than to spend my whole day learning stuff - history, sociology, biology, but NONE of that will put food on my table.
