Statistically, the person with a college degree earns a higher wage than the person without one; also, statistically speaking, additional degrees translate into additional income.
Is this always true? Of course not. (And before the anecdotal stories come in of people with nothing more than a pre-k education making millions, I'll save everyone the time and say that I believe all of them. I'm only referring to statistical averages.)
But I think the cost of a four-year college tuition has simply become prohibitive; it was financially expensive prior to Covid, and the requirement to get this shot makes it physically expensive.
Many universities became popular when young men looking to avoid service in Vietnam saw them as a viable alternative; eventually, they became an expected part of one's education. If there is a benefit to all of this, it will be that a university education falls back to its proper place and the trades become a more reliable means of making a living.
The amount of small businesses opened or maintained by Americans whose families have lived here for at least a few generations, has dwindled in direct relationship to the increase in the amount of kids going to college.
It seems like the only people opening up small local businesses these days, or becoming skilled laborers, are immigrants, and they are living in very nice houses in nice neighborhoods.