Your first three bullet points illustrate how out of touch most older generations are with what Gen Z is actually saying. These ideas presented aren't how Gen Z thinks; they are what you imagine through the lens of older generations.
They aren't saying that college wouldn't be good, that education isn't important, or that earning more money wouldn't be great. What they are saying is that the entire system is so completely stacked against them that there isn't any point in actually participating.
Let's go through your points and reflect on what Gen-Z is actually thinking about:
- "Workers with a bachelor's degree earn a million dollars more..." This first one shows just how out of touch so many older people are with this generation. This isn't how this generation views money. They don't value money the way older generations do. Money is a tool for life, not something to be accumulated. This comes from the fact that they don't see how they will ever acquire homes, much less any actual wealth. These generations value experiences far more than physical wealth because one of these things is accessible to them and the other is not. They don't view "a million dollars" as that much money. When you reflect on how they have observed inflation, you'll understand that to them, by the time they even get a million dollars, it will probably only be enough to buy one economy car and 50 white castle burgers. (but who wants 50 white castle burgers?)
- "Unemployment rates are nearly twice as high..." Again, trusting just numbers can tell a story but not the whole story. These kids can't even find a job even with a degree. Employers want 5 to 10 years of experience for entry-level positions. Meanwhile, the older generations haven't retired (because they had their own setbacks, like in 2008), so GenX and later haven't moved up, leaving few entry-level positions. If you graduate with a degree but can only get the same job as someone who didn't, then what did you actually pay for, and what was the point? They see constant layoffs of their parents and older siblings and see no real difference in stability by having a degree. They certainly have no sense of loyalty to a job, and they see the writing on the wall with the emergence of AI that many of these white-collar jobs will be replaced or made redundant. They are smart enough to avoid the buggy whip business because they just saw a Ford Model-T driving down the road.
- "Jobs requiring bachelor's degrees are projected..." You cannot buy a house or feed yourself on projections. This generation doesn't trust "projections," and why would they? Based on all past projections, they should live near a utopia. Instead, they find themselves in the not-quite-dystopia they grew up fearing, with out-of-control wealth inequality, reduction of civil liberties, and the real threat of religious fascism destroying democracy. Further, getting a college degree doesn't "future-proof" your career in any way. It never has. This thought is almost laughable. Most college curriculums are woefully outdated, meaning a degree is outdated when you graduate. The closer the degree is integrated into technology, the worse it is. The number of people who think a college degree will allow them to coast until they retire is matched only by the number of college graduates who can't seem to keep a job because they see no reason to learn anything else. Oh wait, that's the same group of people.
And this brings us to...
- "The "I'll Just Teach Myself" Fallacy..."
We need to clarify that all education is just teaching yourself—it always has been. You might have guidance and structure provided by someone more experienced, but fundamentally, education is an individual pursuit, even in a college class of thousands. The only thing most college degrees signify is that you are interested in something enough to have studied it and that you know how to learn and teach yourself new things. While older generations had to rely on colleges to teach them the knowledge and skills needed because there were no other options, this new generation grew up knowing from the first time they got on the internet that anything they needed to learn how to do was just a YouTube video away. It seems that because of their distance from this, older generations severely underestimate the sheer volume and quality of resources available for self-education in every subject. Even Harvard University has recognized this fact and has posted its entire curriculum online. This is the first generation to be able to complete a Harvard-level degree for free from the comfort of their own home, just without the shiny piece of paper at the end. If the value of education is to learn the actual concepts and material and be able to apply them, then what is that piece of paper worth?
And that brings us to...
- "The "I Can't Afford It" Excuse"
No, it's not "I Can't Afford It"; it's really "It's not worth it." This is akin to all those people before 2008 being able to "afford" to buy a new home when they really couldn't. All those people were pushed into something they didn't need that they really couldn't afford and, in the end, hurt them. Much like our misguided drive for "home ownership for everyone," "college for everyone" has the same problems. For individuals, it can be sad, and for society, it has led to the problem of a lack of skilled tradespeople. (And wait until the old ones all start retiring. )
Gen-Z is smart. For many careers, students look at future earnings and realize that even with financial aid, the debt they will be saddled with will take decades to pay off. This is why we have a dearth of mental health specialists and truly qualified teachers, among many other professions. I know several people in these professions who are approaching 50 and still have tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, and their earnings are nowhere close to enough where they will pay the loans off before they retire. The stories are everywhere, and this generation reads these stories of people in their 80s who are still paying off hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt. They think one thing: Why? Why bother with a degree they have to spend a lifetime paying off? And it's not like student loan debt is even dismissed if you file bankruptcy. The bottom line: If you are strategic about it, not going to college might be the better choice because investments don't always pay off.
It's good you recognize your bias toward higher education because it benefited you. Still, in doing so, you came so close and then missed the mark of understanding that the world you lived and worked in is entirely different from what these kids see on the horizon. In many cases, they don't see that higher education will actually benefit them, and they also know that college is not the only path to knowledge and success because they have far more ways to learn than previous generations and that the careers the degrees would lead to probably won't even exist anyway.
More importantly, the choice to go to college is not a one-way door decision that a 19-year-old is required to make; it's just not that critical of a decision. Adult students are increasingly common, and Gen Z sees no problem in switching careers multiple times in their lives.
This is why your advice is both good and terrible at the same time. Continued learning and growth are very good things, and everyone should do them, but for the most part, no one should mistake a college degree for anything other than a piece of paper.
