Why did God get rid of the Trilobites?

[Anomalocaris]

A typical product of the current American education system and culture in which it exists, IMO, largely disdain much of what our culture and time can offer of the first,  deride the second as geeky, and discourage the third as uncool and not trendy, if not downright stupid fir not taking the easy path. 

It's not just the USA.
From my experience as a canadian, I can say that the goal of education is viewed as something that should get you a diploma, so that you can get a good job + a big paycheck.

For example, one of my hobbies is chemistry. I have been asked a bunch of times, why I do it, “Can you sell it?”, “How much did it cost you?”, “Why did you make chemical X?”.
No, in amateur chemistry, we don’t make some chemical because we need the chemical. Sometimes, the goal is not to make some “product”.
Some people regard it as a waste of time.

Perhaps people from Plato’s time period regarded the greek philosophers as time wasters.

What do such people do with their free time? Why would you not do something that makes you think or learn?

Is it because of capitalism? Do such people regard such activities as work and therefore, you must get payed and if you do not get payed, then you must sit on your ass and do nothing?

The primary purpose of education for most people has always been to be better able to climb the social ladder and improve the fiscal integrity of the matriculated.   What has changed in the US is the amount of disdain felt by the many people who pursue education for this purpose towards the few who attempts to leverage education to achieve something else. 

The reason is not capitalism per se, in my opinion, but a train of philosophical, policy and social development set in motion and encouraged to continue by a particular philosophical view regarding the justification for capitalism.

[Ferrocyanide]

It's not just the USA.
From my experience as a canadian, I can say that the goal of education is viewed as something that should get you a diploma, so that you can get a good job + a big paycheck.

Do you believe that higher education should be tuition-free, eh?

Sure, why not. If people want an education to get a good job + big paycheck, it is their right.
The problem I have is with the capitalistic system where one person makes 25 k$/y and another person makes 100 k$/y.
The difference in pay is too large. But I digress.

Also, the tuition for university in Canada is not 0$. It is a few hundred $ per course which is still affordable.