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Should a Bachelor’s Degree Remain a Requirement to Work?

Dan Smolen
3 min readMay 21, 2022

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Many in the College Graduating Class of 2022 carry six-figure student loan debt. Photo credit: Rattankun Thongbun for iStock Photo.

Should a Bachelor’s Degree Remain a Requirement to Work?

I ask this question, prompted by a friend’s latest social media post. In it, he included a photo of his son who had just graduated from a top university. The image revealed a happy graduate, in cap and gown, with a smile on his face and a diploma clutched securely in his arms. But the caption added deep concerns: “how long will it take for my son to pay off his $250,000 in student loan debt?”

That’s a nightmare scenario. But it is one playing out in millions of households across the U.S.

Whether our children graduate from Ivy League colleges or from an in-state school, the ROI of their four-year college degree may now be underwater.

So, how did we get to a nightmarish place where the college degree no longer ensures a fast-track to the American Dream?

Truth be told, we got here, because of the Vietnam War. Let me explain:

Beginning in the mid-1960s, young men who likely would have joined their fathers in “the trades” got college deferments to avoid the draft. Instead of earning trade…

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Dan Smolen
Dan Smolen

Written by Dan Smolen

Executive Producer and Show Host of WHAT'S YOUR WORK FIT? We help people find and do work that's part of a wonderful day doing many things, and not the day.

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