College degree not the only route to middle class

The biggest absurdity is that a four-year college degree has become the only gateway into the American middle class. But not every young person is suited to four years of college. They may be bright and ambitious, but they won’t get much out of it. They’d rather be doing something else, like making money or painting murals … And all too often the jobs they land after graduating don’t pay enough to make the degree worthwhile. Last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 46 percent of recent college graduates were in jobs that don’t even require a college degree.