Other than some international trips, going to a university was probably the best money I've ever spent.
College can be a transformative experience, and it is for many such as yourself.
But many more are mired in debt and don't experience any increase in their abilities to think critically. For them, it turns out to be one the worst experiences of their life.
Have one system where it is primarily online and low cost.
Then have the traditional system where it is physical classes and high costs.
Let students decide where to go.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Liberal-Arts-Majors-Fa...
And like the OP said, there is now a glut of humanities degrees higher than the demand for positions.
Their importance in college was really emphasized after World War II, as many of the leading Nazis were seen as non-intellectuals without moral restraints developed by the study of history, philosophy, theology, etc.
Liberal Arts should be cheap you’re right, but it also should be required.
So in a sense, the liberal arts aren't the liberal arts anymore.
There's a dying class of professors who got in while tenure was still a thing that paid probably 1/10 of the cost for education kids are paying now. They have the rosiest glasses possible because they're making around 100k for zero competition in their workspace.
The vast majority of the time now a TA teaches the course or certainly grades the paperwork. Well over half of college degrees obtained will never pay for themselves.
A philosophy, social science or psychology degree are not important enough to pay 50k to get. Free college would be a complete disaster, and a massive waste of money.
The education cartel places liberal , financial shackles on kids who are less than 1000 sunrises away from going to prom. The liberal arts is a complete disaster for young people's financial means. So, you get somebody 100k in debt for something they could learn on the internet and guess what? They'll ALWAYS vote to raise taxes on the rich.
I worked at a state university for five years, doing research. The waste of extravagant, totally unsustainable. I was going to grad school free since I was an employee, dropped out to teach myself software and in four years I make nearly as much as the Phds. in a physical therapy department. All it cost me was time.