> and unlike a car which will rapidly depreciate in a very short amount of timeIf you think a car rapidly depreciates, try reselling your degree. You might be in for a shock.
Winner: The car.
> getting a decent college degree will pay dividends throughout your life in increased earnings power.
The data says otherwise. Wages have held stagnant through the rise of post-secondary schooling. You can't both have increased earning power and stagnant earning power.
The earning power of not being limited to a physically close job that a car affords did show some upward wage movement, however. There was clear wage growth seen during the rise of the automobile.
Winner: The car.
> According to govt estimates, the average lifetime earnings difference between someone with just a high-school diploma, and someone with a college degree is - on average $550,000.
Ouch. The opportunity cost of a four year degree is, on average, more than a million dollars. That's a nasty haircut.
And that's ignoring that your methodology is flawed. We know that different people are different. Of course the person with down syndrome, who just scraped by in high school and struggles in the workplace for the same reason, is going to have lower earning potential than the person who breezed through their studies at Stanford. These people are not comparable.
Which is why you actually want to compare people over time. Using a time vector maintains the spectrum of people from high functioning to low functioning. Over time, as more and more have attained degrees, incomes have held stagnant. There has actually been no economic benefit gained.
