If you look at the supposed age where college truly was a golden ticket, the assumption was that it was the skills taught that got you the job, even if the skil

If you look at the supposed age where college truly was a golden ticket, the assumption was that it was the skills taught that got you the job, even if the skills were tenuously related to the job. My grandfather studied geography and history and spent time teaching those before ending up as an accountant and being hired as a "university graduate" at GM. That would never happen today. The accounting department would want someone who studied accounting. Was it actually about the skills or was it about the capability signaling? With a degree, you had a reasonable argument back then to make that you were in the top 10% of possible workers for skilled tasks. Now with post secondary education, you are maybe top 50%? Now that everyone goes to university, the signal has disappeared for all but the highest ranked institutions.