Over and over again we hear that getting a college degree is crucial because there are very few good jobs left that don’t “require” one. People usually jump to the conclusion that this means that most job fields are becoming so mentally demanding that someone with only a high-school education just doesn’t have the brainpower to do the work.

Not really.

Consider this article from The Detroit News on dissatisfaction among employers in Michigan with the ability of high-school graduates. A bank officer is quoted as saying that it’s a problem for him that loan officers don’t have to be college graduates because they often make grammatical and spelling errors in letters to clients. Perhaps his bank will eventually set a college degree as a requirement for applicants, but that wouldn’t be due to any great skill that one must have in order to process loan applications. All they are looking for is a basic command of English.