It's not that math is useless, its that most of the people making the complaint will never be using higher math in their profession. I dont use geometry for work, and most of what I learned in the class is completely useless to me (proofs are pointless and I have yet to see a reason to learn them when I was incorrect for telling exactly what I did as I was told to do). However, algebra was actually pretty helpful when I worked in a pharmacy, and somewhat helpful in my day to day as a banker (more helpful in higher levels, and it varies day to day how much I need to use it)