> My main philosophical gripe is that it doesn't seem to really matter what your major is.
Can't you just hack this by going to school for pretty much anything you're interested in and being able to work in an unrelated field?
> my next gripe with it is the seemingly insurmountable debt that said education brings
You've established that education is a good investment. So why not find an affordable college? It's not as important which college you go to or what major you select from your first paragraph. So find a cheap city or state school. Most of the debt comes from people going to private schools. I don't know where you live but NYC for instance is one of the most expensive cities in the world, but they even have a great city university (CUNY) which costs NY State residents around $7k a year, which is definitely reasonable.
Can't you just hack this by going to school for pretty much anything you're interested in and being able to work in an unrelated field?
> my next gripe with it is the seemingly insurmountable debt that said education brings
You've established that education is a good investment. So why not find an affordable college? It's not as important which college you go to or what major you select from your first paragraph. So find a cheap city or state school. Most of the debt comes from people going to private schools. I don't know where you live but NYC for instance is one of the most expensive cities in the world, but they even have a great city university (CUNY) which costs NY State residents around $7k a year, which is definitely reasonable.