I think this is just yet another symptom of outdated mindsets. I think people should have the ability to study advanced topics beyond the direct market benefits. Though maybe they also have to learn some core, marketable skills. It’s important for people to see there’s more to life than a paycheck and a cubicle. If society only ever studies the immediately financial, then we risk missing opportunities for short term gains.

One such would be computer science. Until computers came around the underlying algorithm and associated fields were pure math. If people hadn’t been able to study pure math then there wouldn’t have been an entire wing of mathematics available for CS.