There are an awfully lot of young people in the workforce with degrees who are waiting tables, tending bar, selling shoes, etc. One of my forner students with a psych degree is a front desk manager at a hotel. If higher education teaches a person to really think and how to reinvent themselves then it is worth it. But the sheepskin is not a sure fire ticket to financial success. Education spending would be worth it, if some really bright young people could be lured back into the classroom at the elementary level. Math specialists in elemetary school comes to mind. I've met too many elementary teachers who couldn't do the math above division; they didn't care for math and slighted it in their teaching.