Everybody goes to college nowadays and the average white collar has lots of debt and relatively minor financial benefits over a skilled trade worker.
edit: woah, so many people insulted by that. In my bubble and friends, me and another friend are the only people that make very good money compared to non-graduates. Plenty of others opened their shops, went into trades, one learned to tattoo fake eyelashes, one became a (successful) farmer and most make significantly more than the average law/chemist/mathematician/physics/architecture/languages graduates. Sure, the lowest salaries are to be found among the non-graduates too, but I don't see any evidence that graduates make that much more, and that graduating is worth it.
Some answers talking about how "formative college is", but my 25 years old friend with her own shop knows more about real life, business and economy than ivy league MBAs.
Its not good advice for everybody, but it is good advice for a lot of people. What if you want to be a doctor? What if you want to work in R & D? Not everyone enjoys working in a shop or a farm. Also, how old is your friend group? If they are mid twenties you are ignoring the greater scope for advancement in a lot of white collar careers.
> my 25 years old friend with her own shop knows more about real life, business and economy than ivy league MBAs.
Within the narrow limits relevant to her business. How much does she know about macro-economics or financial economics, or scaling up a business? I also suspect you are comparing her to people who went straight on from bachelors to MBA (which is a bad path - study business after having some experience IMO) and lack experience. How will she compare in 10 years time when those people also have real world experience?
If you’re talking about a place to mature, around others who are at a similar phase of life, also yes.
It is where most people meet their cofounders, for example, even if they don’t found anything until much later.
Plenty of blue collar workers make more than white collar ones, and have a huge debt free head start in life.
A plumber or electrician will make significantly more than the average bank employee or translator or nurse or teacher.
And they will also have an easier time starting a business as many trade workers are self employed and make much more than hired ones.
Financially, intellectually, socially, it’s a good idea - college is a formative period of life in American culture. That is more and more true the better the college gets. At the upper tier (Ivy League, etc.) you don’t really have to pay anything if your family isn’t already wealthy, and the connections and degree you’ll make more than pay for themselves.
Many people are surprised to learn how affordable elite colleges are if you genuinely need financial aid. I had no idea -- was pleasantly surprised when my alma mater took over 80% off of my tuition.
Where I live it's basically free and I still sometimes regret not going into the trades. But I suspect this feeling might mostly be a "grass is greener" thing.
Just some anecdata, but every single one of my university professors was quite bad, but they think that since they are the professor, that means they are smart and the expert.
Then vote for someone who will make the debts go away?
As opposed to vote for someone who gives even more power and money to the oligarchs? You bet your last dollar that people will choose the former over the latter.
I mean, have you seen the options for people graduating right now? How people are behaving?
Or forget the data, look at how the story of the new future technology is being told. The people making it recognize that it has the potential to put swathes of white collar workers out of jobs, and they are openly talking/warning/PR-ing about it.
People in tech and SV, the places which have a underlying culture of near delusional optimism, are talking about trying to avoid being part of "the permanent underclass".
Gambling is up, and prediction markets are being treated as financial investments. Wall street bets is a thing, and outright speculative investments are the hope people have to get ahead.
This is happening in the USA, forget the weaker or smaller economies.
When people see the future as one massive zero sum game, with no way to win by building, then they are going to change how they plan their future.