Its also depressing to spend 4 years getting a history or philosophy degree and be almost as unemployable as when you started.
This is very much not true. At my old job (in finance) when they were hiring for back office work they candidates had to have a degree. Most were in the arts, but once in the field they had the opportunity to take securities courses and start their lucrative careers which would not have been available to them with a high school diploma. The EA in that office earned six figures... also English lit major.
In my current job (in accounting) we have a few who work in corporate secretarial positions, again the requirement is a university degree. There are several of them with arts degrees and they all make close to six figures as well.
It may not be a vocational degree like finance or marketing but in a corporate setting, it opens more doors than a high school diploma.