The stat you linked to is misleading. 40% of Americans aged between 25-64 covers anyone who graduated in the last forty years. You should look at recent gradua

The stat you linked to is misleading. 40% of Americans aged between 25-64 covers anyone who graduated in the last forty years. You should look at recent graduates to remove any bias from older generations who may have been educated before the 'rite of passage' idea became popular. On the other hand, the actual figure is around 35% for 25-29 year olds so it's not far off. It goes up to 45% if you include associate degrees. While that doesn't seem like much, it's more than 1 in 3 and 25 years ago it was 1 in 4. For a qualification that was once an elite bit of paper, that's a lot of people. It's also showing no sign of decreasing, increased costs or not. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_caa.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_caa.asp > But please stop advocating for the wholesale elimination of the most accessible path to success for millions of low and middle-income Americans who are not exceptional. Is there a citation for that? Median wages, over time, have not improved in line with a more educated populous. More people getting degrees has not translated into a more wealthy population. Note that in the UK at least, some of the larger firms have stopped asking for degrees and simply require you to pass in-house testing. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/ey-firm-says-it-will-not-longer-consider-degrees-or-a-level-results-when-assessing-employees-10436355.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/e...