A College Education Has Increased In Importance For Young People While Becoming More Difficult To Get

A college education has always offered the opportunity for an increased income in this country -- but that has never been as true as it is today. Note that the difference in median income for those in the Silent generation (when they were 25 to 32 years old) was only about $7,449. That was a significant sum, but not nearly as big a difference as Millennials experience today -- where the difference in medium income is $17,500. That means the difference a college education makes is worth more in a year than a minimum wage earner can earn for the whole year (about $15,000).

And considering that most jobs being created in this economy for workers that don't have a college education are at or near minimum wage (and by 2020 minimum wage jobs will make up one quarter of the available jobs), it is obvious that a college education is becoming very important for Millennials. In short, it is becoming increasingly difficult for young people in America to find a job that will support them at a decent level without a college education.

The problem faced by these Millennials though is that the cost of a college education is skyrocketing, and even many middle class students are finding it very hard to afford college. They are being put between a rock and a hard place. Either they don't go to college, or they graduate college with a crushing debt that it will take many years to pay off (which severely eats up the economic advantage of having that college education).

This doesn't have to be this way. Other countries realize the value of an educated workforce, and they invest heavily in helping college students to attend school and graduate (with free tuition and large grants). They know this is a cost-effective policy, since they will more than recover the money spent in the increased taxes those graduates will pay (due to their increased incomes). And since those students don't have huge college debts to pay off, they can spend more of their increased income buying goods and services (which stimulates the economy and benefits everyone by increasing profits and creating new jobs).

Unfortunately, U.S. politicians won't look at that long-term good. They are more interested in making interest off loans to college students -- which only decreases the amount of taxes they can pay, and decreases the amount of money they can spend in the economy (money that could have spurred increased profits and job creation as it circulates through the economy).

And the increase in income is not the only advantage to having a college education. As the charts below show, a college education makes it far less likely a person will be unemployed or will have to live in poverty.

The charts above were all made from information provided by the Pew Research Center.

Silent Generation -- born 1928 to 1945
Early Boomers -- born 1946 to 1954
Late Boomers -- born 1955 to 1964
Generation X -- born 1965 to 1980
Millennials -- born after 1980