|
In many developing countries, I would say it's the reverse. Undergrad is actually "necessary" for most average people -- it's the minimum bar for white collar employment; the only exceptions are people who are have rare, valuable skills. In Western countries, it's way easier (it's more difficult now, but still fairly easy) to get to a middle-class life without a college degree. I've lived in developing countries and when I moved to the west, I realized America, and many western countries, are actually outliers. In a developing country, especially populous ones, this is decidedly not the case. In many third world countries, the path to a good income for people without college degrees is typically to run your own business (not everyone makes it, but at least it's a reasonable path). It requires working long hours, business acumen (understanding velocity of money, not just profit margin [1]), and pivoting a lot. Many of my family members without college degrees made it this way. An uncle apprenticed with a carpenter to learn the furniture business, and slogged for years. But he saved aggressively and managed to open his own business, and understood the business cycle -- optimizing for cashflow rather than profit. He's doing well today. [1] https://commoncog.com/what-the-ceo-wants-you-to-know/ |