 The New Yorkers asks why enrollment in humanities is abysmal in US. The obvious answer is capitalism. The only skills people learn are the ones that can be monetized. Nobody is going to pay 150k to be poor. Reminds me of this interview with George Lucas where he explained how Soviet film makers had far more creative freedom because their work didn't have to be commercially viable. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major?utm_source=pocket-newtab 5 comments
 @yogthos OK, I found some info here. All of my assumptions were totally wrong. Humanities increased in the 60s (despite the Sputnik stuff) and then dropped off, had another peak in around the 90s, and plummeted in the last decade. https://sappingattention.blogspot.com/2018/07/mea-culpa-there-is-crisis-in-humanities.html (I found the study from a mention in this article: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/why-stem-students-need-humanities-courses/) @richard_merren I'm guessing that the main factor is whether people see humanities as a viable career, in the current austerity climate people are driven towards choosing careers that are utilitarian |
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@yogthos In the years after Sputnik in 1959, the US did a major drive to push people into science majors. I wonder how humanities enrollment today compares to the early 60s.