There is an economic benefit to a great many pursuits, but it is generally controlled by short-term benefits, at the maximum within the lifetime of a single human being, which is incredibly short-term still on a geologic time scale.

The benefits of generalization and broad understanding outlive a single person, a single society, or a single period of time. People who are well educated in the liberal arts, which includes both sciences and the humanities, will make more integrated decisions and more sane ones for the long term. We need those people; in my opinion we all need to be those people, even if we spend most of our time specializing. It's a subtle but critical difference.

I am utterly convinced of this: blind specialization will merely move humanity in an unknown direction which is the result of a self-reinforcing process of unknown origin or termination. Generalists will move humanity forward. It is the difference between a cancer and a baby: unmoderated growth versus life itself.

Do we want to go where economic gain takes us, effectively puppets of a multidimensional system beyond our full understanding or control, or do we want to move humanity forward? That is the question.