We should subsidize things that have value to society and the progress of society. The ability to produce goods with clear economic value is only one limited type of social value. You list "teachers" as having value, but much of what K-12 teachers teach doesn't (and shouldn't) have direct economic value. Understanding history isn't neccessary for 99.9% of professions, neither is understanding most of basic science, including the theory of evolution. But people knowing these things impacts moral, social, and political progress, making people better "citizens" able to make more informed rational political choices, without which democracy ultimately fails. For similar reasons, there is value in art, sociology, psychology, and English majors. Even much of the hard sciences has no obvious direct economic value. That is the nature of basic science. The goal of education is not merely to train workers. In fact, such a notion applied to higher education is a very recent thing created by the right, who only value wealth. Human civilization, morality, and politics has progressed from the Dark Ages to where it is today, in large part because of people educated for no economic utility at all, but for the principle that knowledge of all things has inherent value.
If someone wants to enrich themselves witrh art history read books and take classes...on their own time and money.
While I am an independent centrist there is a growing processive view that govt should provide abd be all things to all people all the time, and anything less constitutes bias, inequity, and unfair.
We have trouble providing consistent primary education across the country and demographics as it is. That has to be fixed before paying for higher education personal enrichment.
Higher education is supposed to provide those who are going to make things work, not fanciful endeavors.
I am likely further to the left that you, but I agree with much of your post. I was an English major back in the late 60s ad early 70s. I paid back my loans for that worthless education. Sure, they were much lower than what many students owe today, but they were still about the price of a car during that era and my ex and I were very low income for many years.
These days there are far more ways to learn the liberal arts without going to college. Even Harvard has or had free online courses over the past several years. The internet has allowed us to learn most anything, especially in the fields related to liberal arts. The college where I studied English was at liberal arts school, but it also had degrees in education and business. Everyone was expected to take a wide range of liberal arts, and I can tell you that most students paid little attention in these classes and learned very little. It was usually easy for me to pull a B without ever gong to class. I will admit that I never cared about getting top grades during the time I spent studying lib arts. I didn't even know what I wanted to do with my life. I only attended class if I thought the teacher was interesting, and class attendance wasn't mandatory, as we rebellious young boomers protested for that right. We protested everything back in the day. Fun times, but I digress.
I did have a wonderful Western Civ. instructor, but did I really need to take that class to be successful in life? No. It was enriching and helped me understand the history of mostly white people. These days, I could have learned the exact same things independently. It's sad that so many people have loans that they struggle to pay back, but life is tough and we all learn through our mistakes. I've made my share. They made me a stronger, more thoughtful person.
I know that those in academia will strongly disagree with me, and I understand that, but I feel strongly that formal education in contemporary America needs to be directly tied to the job market. My son is a good example. He's a computer programmer/developer. I asked him last week if he still liked what he does. His answer was, "Yes, I'll be coding till death'. He found something that he liked and was talented at doing. I felt that way about nursing. It gave me a satisfying, while stressful career. Majoring in English didn't prepare me for life or for a career.
We also tend to under value electricians, plumbers, mechanics, nurses aides, sanitation workers etc. These are very important jobs of all, imo. Academics can sit and enjoy mentally masturbating for hours, but if the toilet stops running, or if the car breaks down, or the lights won't go on, all of that intellectualism isn't going to help.
