[pc86]

> it became impossible to get a middle-class job without a college degree

Not true, I did fairly well as a software engineer after dropping out of school, and having finished my degree it hasn't made any difference in my day to day (except people think I'm a decade younger than I actually am based on the date on my resume).

> And the world does owe people a fair chance at a living. To the extent that that involves a useless college degree because people want the credential, yes, the world owes them that.

The world owes you exactly nothing.

[geofft]

Since you are nitpicking my meaning of "impossible," let me rephrase. It is generally far more difficult, for most people, to get a middle-class job without a college degree than with one, and it generally does not matter if they learned job-relevant subject matter in that degree.

The fact that you, personally, did so is simply an anecdote.