To the liberal arts majors/masters/Ph.D.s don't say nobody told you it would be like this. My engineering/math/science friends would tell them the truth when asked and they wouldn't hear it. All they needed was +1 level (major to master, master to doctor) and THEN they would get that amazing job that would pay them for knowing the first year red dye paint was imported to Scandinavia.
No. That isn't how the world works. You get paid for knowing useful things, like the coefficient of friction of various materials, the modulus of elasticity of building members, the viscosity of fluids, how circuits work, how to program. Useful things.
The problem with an engineering student telling a liberal arts student that their degree isn't valuable, is that the engineering student's opinion is very rarely grounded in experience. Although one group happens to have the "right" opinion, that's all it is until reality vindicates it.
Does a fact need to be grounded in personal experience? I know that 10 gigabit ethernet exists, but I have never actually experienced it. Likewise, I know that a degree in history increases someone's expected earnings much less than a degree in nuclear engineering. Even though I have no personal experience in those areas.
Our society needs diversity to thrive. If we have a society made up of only people that know 'useful' things (or what is considered useful today, as this changes through time), it becomes vulnerable, in the same way that a population with a narrow gene pool is vulnerable.
So, it's important that we have people who understand the causes of the second world war (history) or the difference between signifier and signified (semiotics) in the same way that it's important we have people who understand about the viscosity of fluids; our society is all the poorer without them.
No. That isn't how the world works. You get paid for knowing useful things, like the coefficient of friction of various materials, the modulus of elasticity of building members, the viscosity of fluids, how circuits work, how to program. Useful things.