Your article completely fails at one extremely critical point: some college degrees, namely STEM degrees, are indeed worth the cost, but that other degrees, namely non-STEM degrees, typically earn graduates far less than mere high school grads. Overall the "average" of all of these degrees makes the "average degree" more valuable than just high school, but that "average" is driven up by STEM degrees. So, basically, your article fails at the most important insight in this area: Only some degrees are worth it, while other degrees impoverish people. https://medium.com/non-violence/high-school-grads-greater-wealth-than-bachelor-of-arts-lifelong-savings-fulltime-employment-336f6809ac84