Should you get a master’s degree?

Walter Russell Mead is skeptical:

I advise my own students, employees and relations to think carefully before signing up for expensive masters’ degrees.  Most of the successful journalists, NGO leaders and authors I run across don’t have masters’ degrees and when the subject comes up they don’t recommend them to young people interested in these fields.  There are exceptions where top teachers who are also leading people in a given field can become your mentor and help you enter a challenging and rewarding profession, but you have to look hard to find these.

He’s responding to a Bloomberg report indicating that quite a few people find themselves possessing very expensive master’s degrees and low-paying jobs.

In my field, journalism, I honestly can’t see why most people would go for a master’s, given the facts on the ground. I’m sure you could learn a lot of useful information about reporting. No question about that. But where are you going to work, given the dearth of jobs within the field? And how are you ever going to make enough money to pay off your loans?