Why do college degrees require Calc, Trig, or Algebra? Most of this info is never used!?

Its seems to me that many hours are wasted studying unnecessary subjects when more focus should or could be spent on the subject a person is interested in. Curricula seems forced on students. I don't want to know or learn a foreign language for example. This may cause difficulty where I choose to work. Yet studying 2 years of Spanish or whatever....I'd sooner use a translator.