re: Why do so many good universities offer unmarketable degrees?

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Let’s be honest here. Liberal arts degrees are EASY to get in terms of class difficulty. It’s the past of least resistance for a bachelors.

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Broadly I think this is true. Of course, liberal arts degrees vary in difficulty and a lot of that depends on the school, the professors and the student. At some point you're self-selecting within liberal arts, and you can certainly assemble a pretty challenging liberal arts coursework load if you want. Instructors/professors matter a great deal too. I had a "core" classes where in the same class the difficulty level varied greatly because one professor only wanted to amorphously discuss feminist japanese poetry while the other wanted you to write coherently (as a 19 year old) about Dostoevsky.

I think aptitude also matters. I know some engineers whose eyes glaze over on topics like history and who can't write for shite, those things would be inherent challenges for them. Meanwhile I was borderline remedial on STEM. I think as a general rule it's a higher hurdle to become proficient in STEM subjects than liberal arts subjects, but there is some variance there.

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Liberal arts degrees are EASY to get in terms of class difficulty

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Probably a mixed bag. Some of the hardest classes I took in college were liberal arts classes. I found the workload outside of class much more daunting than in several business classes I took, including my chosen major of accounting.

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Let’s be honest here. Liberal arts degrees are EASY to get in terms of class difficulty.

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It depends.

My liberal arts undergrad major required courses at a level where the classes would be mixed undergrad and graduate students in the same classroom.

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I had a "core" classes where in the same class the difficulty level varied greatly because one professor only wanted to amorphously discuss feminist japanese poetry while the other wanted you to write coherently (as a 19 year old) about Dostoevsky.

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ratemyprofessor.com was a huge plus in college because of stuff like this.

I had an LSU professor once tell my class, "You don't go to college to get a job, you go to college to get an education. There are plenty of plumbers who live in Bocage."

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I think you are trying to turn this into a "which came first the egg or chicken" arguement?

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Not at all. Your lack of understanding is what makes you think so.

A university isn’t tied to the hip of private sector marketability. That’s a trade school. There are lots of reasons to offer and attend.

Even the OP acknowledges there are legit paths along the lines, just not everyone goes down them.

As I’ve said many times: The definition of freedom includes the chance of fricking up. If you have any chance of screwing up legislated out, you are inherently less free, and frick everyone who might want to other wise walk those paths because people are too stupid to make the right choices.

The concept of having some random administrator arbitrarily adding and removing curriculum solely on what they think is the best suited for private sector nationally is absurd to me and a clusterfrick waiting to happen.

Let me rephrase what you are saying: you want schools to selectively withhold education to only topics they feel to be useful remains.

And again, that’s fricking stupid.

People might get a liberal arts degree that gets them a job, but the pay isn't so great. Someone mentioned Enterprise only hiring applicants with a college degree, but considering their turnover rate, I suspect the pay isn't very high.

A guy I know had a father who taught him to weld. He was making $20 an hour while he was a senior in high school. Today he travels around the world making $300K a year. Try getting that with a degree in anthropology

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Tulane has degree programs in African and Latin American studies.

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African Studies is an easier major. Struggling students are often pushed that direction.

Latin American studies, you could sell that as part of a double major to a consulting firm. McKinsey for example.

Ultimately, as others have said, universities weren’t designed to be trade schools. They were supposed to offer largely upper class Americans a cultural education.

That mission has shifted, they do offer quite a bit of vocational training, and they now educate the middle class as well.

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I can throw out an outlier as well if you want.

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He has his own crew of 4 that he brings with him, each making $200K+

Lesson to be learned - Learn.To.Weld.