Self-taught is wishful thinking. We've had the ability to self learn for ages yet most people don't. My local trade school has had a learning center for anyone

Self-taught is wishful thinking. We've had the ability to self learn for ages yet most people don't. My local trade school has had a learning center for anyone to go to and learn from hundreds of professions for at least 40 years yet very few people take advantage of the opportunity. It might even be harder to self learn now since it takes very little to quit. It's just too hard for most people to work their way through the courses alone. It's too easy to quit for whatever reason. Anyone can drop in for free into any college class now without enrolling there's nothing stopping them, since most professors don't care as long as they don't have to deal with the student, but people don't. We mainly pay for the degree for prestige, the paper diploma and the constant push we get to finish and the fact that we enrolled in a class and in school and have to finish. Self-taught is a way to never get through a degree and never get a job for most people. 40k+ is the cost of not having elite level self-control. A price worth paying for most.