The OP seems to say that education for jobs, e.g., as in the Obama quote about manufacturing and trades, is one case and that the other is a "liberal" education

The OP seems to say that education for jobs, e.g., as in the Obama quote about manufacturing and trades, is one case and that the other is a "liberal" education, which usually means heavily the humanities of literature, art, history, philosophy, and maybe some religion. But, this dichotomy seems to have omitted mathematics, physical science, social science, engineering, and technology. And the purpose of some of these might be not just jobs but beneficial research results and new companies that create new products/services and jobs. It appears that the OP has set up a straw man, education for jobs as something to knock down in order to praise his favorite "liberal" education. I'd say: "Liberal" education, that's about the humanities, right? And the main purpose of the humanities is to better the lives of humans, right? Well, what else has so far bettered the lives of humans, say, compared with a few hundred or a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of years ago? For bettering the lives of humans, how about agriculture, domestication of animals, textiles, writing, arithmetic, geometry, the wheel, work with wood, stone, and metals for tools, construction, etc., open ocean sailing, steam power, other heat engines, chemistry, physics, medicine, electricity, electronics, mathematics, engineering, materials, computing, telecommunications? Have these been good for humans and, thus, helped achieved the main goal of the humanities? Are the classic topics in the humanities and a liberal education really the sole, best help for humans? We can help humans by helping them to be happy, and one way is with some art, say, some Bach http://grooveshark.com/s/Cello+Suite+No+1+Bach/3seBIM?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Cello+Suite+No+1+Bach/3seBIM?src=5 some Vitali http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4B1ifcWa9o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4B1ifcWa9o some Camille Saint Saens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X79OkSayPSw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X79OkSayPSw but also some math, say, Lebesgue and von Neumann as in Rudin, Real and Complex Analysis -- gorgeous stuff and with, e.g., a lot of beautifully done Fourier theory of crucial importance across the STEM fields. So, such math can make humans both happy and productive! Some of the prerequisites for the crucial, core technology for my start up are in Rudin; so I expect that that material is productive; if my start up works, then I will thank Rudin, von Neumann, etc.; but if my start up flops, I won't blame them!