Looks like the college degree is the new high school diploma.
Somehow, I can't see Watchtower reinquishing their stand on higher education...
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/commentary/everyday/sahadi/index.htm Paycheck paralysis Moving up financially has gotten harder for young adults, one expert contends. By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer January 23, 2006: 1:19 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – If ever you find yourself pining for your 20s or 30s, you might reconsider.
Sure, you'll never look that good again. But to hear Tamara Draut tell it, folks in their 20s and 30s today – from middle- and lower-income households primarily – have never had it so tough financially.
In her book, "Strapped: Why America's 20-and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead," Draut cites a number of hindering factors. Key among them: debt coupled with paycheck paralysis.
Starting their adult lives with zero in the bank would be a huge improvement over the debt many in the 18-34 age group shoulder from school loans and credit card balances incurred to get a college degree and to support themselves on low wages after graduation. And then there are those who incur debt to pay for some college but never graduate.
Draut and others have argued that the college degree today has become the equivalent of the high-school degree of yesteryear: a requirement to secure a middle-class income.
But the increased financial investment required to get the degree doesn't necessarily yield a proportional increase in wages.
Draut, who runs the economic opportunity program at the think tank Demos, notes that a man with college degree or higher in 2002 earned about $49,000. That's about $3,000 less than what a male college graduate in 1972 earned and only about $6,000 more than what a male high school graduate in 1972 made. (All figures are in 2002 dollars.)
While it's still true that your lifetime earnings increase dramatically the higher your degree, "education is no longer a slam-dunk," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com. "You need the right education, a continuing education and talent."