This very much depends on what you want your student to do in their life.  At jobs like McDolands, Wal-Mart, and other labor intensive jobs, there is not much need for math.  However, do you want your doctor to prescribe you the wrong amount of medication?  What if a researcher didn’t know how to do math?  That could damage testing results in a wide area of disciplines.  I constantly use ratios, proportions, and equations (mostly functions) when I go shopping to find the best deal.  (How much does that cost per ounce?  Will I save money by changing my phone plan if I constantly go over or not?)  

The honest reason for learning math is to advance society with other educatal backrounds.  Math is a multidisciplinary subject.  Other subjects greatly depend upon mathematical knowledge to further their skill.

Society first started learning math to keep tract of taxes.  Math is still the root of society today.