College Vs. Apprenticeships

There is nothing incorrect about the graphic here, and there is no doubt that, for young people who may not be academically inclined, the career path on the right makes sense.

Having said that, the most obvious rebuttal here is that the long-term earnings of college graduates far outweigh those who skipped college and entered the work force at 17 years of age.  Think of the doctors and lawyers.  Think of all the people in the corporate world, who would have been laughed out of their first interviews if they showed up speaking substandard English.

Yes, there are exceptions to this: Dominos Pizza zillionaire Tom Monahan, a high school drop-out, and the tiny slice of athletes, e.g., basketball players, most of them are close to seven feet tall, or the one-in-a-million football quarterback.

But what seems most obviously wrong here is that the comparison fails to point to the ancillary benefits of higher education, e.g., on average, a better appreciation of reading, more travel, deeper discussions with others, and the pure joy associated with learning.