Counterpoint: It was true for quite some time that a college degree, any degree for that matter, was the ticket. Just because that has seemed to change, and to

Counterpoint: It was true for quite some time that a college degree, any degree for that matter, was the ticket. Just because that has seemed to change, and to some degree it has, to a large extent it hasn't, doesn't falsify the past. As I see it, the college degree and its cost has become a scapegoat for poor government and political organization. Jeez these kids went into how much debt to get a job making how much money!? Well, what are we doing to provide good entry level opportunity and training for our young people? crickets. Well, our businesses and even our government agencies have outsourced the initial hiring screening to colleges and universities - even today's big tech companies only hire at certain universities. Government agencies demand specific credentials, whether that's a 4-year degree in a specific topic of study or a certification of some sorts - think Tableau cert for a government data analyst job. And to bring this all back to how we build and our crappy transportation infrastructure, our entrepreneurship rates are down too - so even if you don't want to go to a 4-year university but instead bake at home and want to open a shop, you can't afford it because the spaces available are too large, there isn't enough foot traffic, and to build something out in the suburbs where you'll get drive-through traffic good luck competing with the efficiency of very very large corporations - i.e. playing on their home turf. Want to sell produce on the side from your home garden? At what farmer's market? The one you have to pay $500 to set up a booth on the sidewalk that everybody has to drive through? Very difficult to supplement your income on that. So the cost and "uselessness" of the 4 - year degree is pretty well understood and harped on. But we shouldn't over index on that when there are plenty of other associated issues that may be even more important. Basically, we're looking at this big target of college degrees and MBAs or whatever because that's easy to do so - number big make number small. But there are just far more associated issues that contribute to this broad problem and they need attention too.