When everyone goes to college, the bachelor's degree becomes the new high school degree. Then you either split between "good" bachelor's and "bad" bachelor's (d

When everyone goes to college, the bachelor's degree becomes the new high school degree. Then you either split between "good" bachelor's and "bad" bachelor's (depending on the institution), or all the degree requirements increase one step, or a little of both. You can't just expect to give everyone a degree and have a nation of professionals, with "someone else" (people in foreign countries, immigrants) doing the blue collar work. For two reasons: one, there just isn't enough demand for professional-level work. Two, people differ in innate ability, and education level is often more useful as a proxy for that ability than for what it concretely teaches you. Giving everyone the same degree, even if you somehow get everyone to recite the material, will not give everyone the same level of ability - it will just destroy the degree's value as a proxy. I wouldn't blame the councilors, teachers and parents too much, though - they have to focus on the individual case. Blame the politicians and thought leaders instead, who should have been able to see the effect at the collective level. If you're advising an individual, it's fine to assume that the market environment will not be affected by their actions. If you're advising a nation, it's not!