Now that I think about it, it's possible that the everyone-must-attend-college idea could be, in part, a response to societal ruthlessness and an extreme me-first/who-cares-about-you attitude we have here in the US.
Great point. I think you're quite right. People do see how hard it can be for low-income earners and feel bad about it to some extent, but rather than addressing it in some rather more logical large-scale way, their response is "You should go to college! That'll fix it!" (Or, "Start your own business! That'll fix it!") It's the whole American pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps thing. What's always confused me about this whole argument is that there is no denying that SOMEbody has to pick the tomatoes, make the hamburgers, clerk the stores, and clean the hotels. If all these low-income, low-wage workers magically become college-educated entrepreneurs, who is going to do that work? Teenagers? There really aren't enough of them.
There is always going to be a working class. We NEED a working class. They should be paid a living wage, or we disrespect and ignore the basic fact of human variability, IMO.
