[motohagiography]

The value of a degree seemed to have a stepping function, where up until about the late '80's, it was a luxury, but by the 90's it was almost instantaneously necessary for basic jobs, then the dotcom boom reduced its necessity to where by the mid'00's, a generation of young men eschewed them went into tech or trades instead while young women went to school, and then the last decade of the '10's, if you didn't have a degree you were among the left behind.

The economic downturn we are in now will mean "safe jobs" based on government spending will mostly go to the degreed, but any economic growth will come from people who are good enough at what they do to make things others want and build new firms, imo. The value is sort of polarized, where if your future is rural, trades oriented, or entrepreneurial, school is neither sufficient or necessary, but if you want to participate in the urban(e), managerial, and career oriented economy, there is not a single other qualification.

If you are thinking about school, do it. If you didn't do it, maintain no illusions about your opportuntities, but if you didn't go and still think you're somehow equal or on a level field to people who did, know that they don't.