College isn't about job training, it's more about demonstrating that one is good prospective employee (signalling).[1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_Against_Education#:...

Perhaps the more original source for this idea is in Michael Spence’s 1973 paper on Job Market Signaling:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

Really? I remember half my capstone classmates that couldn't code or focus for more than five minutes on a project. All of them had good grades of course.

Imagine what the people who can't make it to their capstone are like...

This is a huge issue colleges face. Cheating let's these people get by.

Engineering has a few extra math classes that weed out most of these types..

People still pursue their own interests, but usually it's outside of a university setting. Mixing these things with job training and then siloing them into an expensive and overly bureaucratic[1] system called "college" is of questionable value.

[1]Compare signing up for a college foreign language course with signing up for a foreign language course outside of college.

Sure people should continue learning and pursuing their interests their whole lives. But why do taxpayers need to subsidize it? If someone has an interest in something as a hobby, they can finance it themselves.

You have a weird definition of the word "subsidize."

I suppose I will allow low-income subsidies, but I consider non-dischargeable federal debt to be less of a subsidy and more of a "sure we'll help, but you better keep paying every f'ing month, or we'll make your life challenging, and we'll still get our money when you die," and less of a "here's some free government money with no strings attached."

It's also an excellent way to "print" money and ensure a steady cash-flow.

I guess it depends on which narrative makes you sleep at night with your worldview.

I didn't say anything about funding education, just the reasoning for it.

Having said that I do believe undergraduate education should be available to everyone. As automation continues to improve there is less and less need for labor. Why not reduce the supply a bit and get more educated citizens out of the deal?

If we say an undergraduate education is not worth taxpayer dollars then the real question seems to be "how much education is enough?" If 16 years is too much how do we know 12 is the right amount? The question leaves open the possibility that 8 years is just as good.

Clearly some amount of taxpayer funded education is beneficial. It seems natural to me that the ideal amount of education will continue to increase as we learn more as a species.

Enrichment of the population can be beneficial and worth fostering? This doesn’t speak to if we should do it, just that there are reasons to argue for it.