People with college degrees make more money than people without them? True. Therefore, if everyone had a college degree, everyone would make more money? In spite of what the politicians tell you, this is false.
As long as a minority of people have college degrees, the degrees serve as a quick-and-dirty sorting tool to select out those with more intelligence, social skills, and upper-middle-class values. Not to mention superior ability to read, write, and manage numerical data. Do they always get you the "shiny penny?" No, but often enough.
Now suppose everybody, or nearly so, gets a college degree. Then its power as a selection device disappears. Presto, change-o, a college degree no longer means a higher income when everybody has one. Then it will be the minimum standard to get a truck-driving job, or a food-service job.
What will the new standard of excellence be? Probably a graduate degree, or a professional degree, or both. We last wrote about this issue on June 29, 2011, search term is GI Bill.
When politicians equate getting a college degree with getting a higher income, remember that it's only true if most people don't get degrees. So far, that is true.
