system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV Students who graduate with arts degrees and complain about the job market got exactly what they signed up for.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm only referring to those arts students who went to school to achieve only their bachelors degree and have no plans to pursue graduate schooling. 

I've noticed that many of my peers graduating with arts degrees have taken to Facebook to meme about their lack of job opportunity or even explicitly complain that the system set them up to fail. 
I'm of the opinion that since we (society) have known of the devaluation of university degrees for quite some time and to pursue an area of interest formally is incredibly ill advised. 
I understand the argument for studying what one is interested in but why does that interest need to be explored at a massive cost? 

I personally have a passion for photography/videography/filmmaking but am pursuing an engineering degree while using my free time to make films. I chose my major out of practicality and have been told that I chose the "sell your soul" route rather than the "stay true to yourself" route. Help wrap my mind around this.
gpt
I think a big part of your point is valid and will just focus on one part:

> what they signed up for.

What many signed up for was what the generation before, their parents and counselors, had. There were large differences between the experience of the baby boomers and their millenial kids in a number of ways:

1. A college degree in anything, even art, was more of a job qualification, because less people had degrees

2. College used to be much less expensive

3. The labor market was much more forgiving and it was possible to make a decent living even with a "worthless" college degree because at least it would signal you were "cultured"

4. College was a spot to network with other people who have successful futures 

The 1950s-1990s were a pretty unique time. The parents generation applied their own experience in the advice they gave their kids, which turned out to be lousy advice. What this generation "signed up" for is list of 1-4 above and what they got was something entirely different.

Was some of this change foreseeable and would many people have been wiser to study something which would make money, rather than studying their hobby? Yes. But they got plenty of bad advice along the way as well.