Ey, not everyone can be software developers or engineers. The world needs janitors and Starbucks barristas as much as it needs STEM majors.
That was kind of my point. If you get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of government paid tuition that qualifies you for nothing more than a minimum wage job, the government has basically thrown that money away.
Money spent on learning is NEVER "thrown away." I would argue that knowing about more things is a form of self-improvement, even if it doesn't change your job prospects one iota.
Naturally, I'm one of them thar hippies in favor of free tuition as a result, but come ON--without the arts, our lives would be much more bland. Our culture is richer for the arts, and to pretend that liberal-arts degrees are worthless just because there's no liberal-arts career path at the moment is to decry all the benefits of creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
As for why US tuitions are so fucking high nowadays, a good bit of the increase appears to be because universities have suddenly hired a bunch of administrative staff, and they're getting paid ridiculous salaries. I don't care WHAT you do for the university, you do NOT deserve a seven-figure salary. Ever. At all.
Plus,
some things have a value beyond the dollar amount.