But Mr. Karlgaard's article then quickly spins out of control by equating the asset class of a four-year college degree with the ability to find information through search engines such as Google. He then contradicts himself by indicating that most of today's higher-paying jobs go to those who exhibit a combination of adaptable intelligence, numeracy, communication skills and a strong work ethic, as opposed to evidence of specific knowledge. If that's the case, then how are the facts gathered through a Google search in any way equivalent to the real thinking skills taught by the colleges? Mr. Karlgaard's third point flows from this contradiction in that he believes that today's colleges do not teach such thinking skills and instead merely confirm the educational status of a candidate. For example, the value of a degree from a fine liberal arts college isn't that the student attended the college and learned there but instead is that the college only accepts smart students so a graduate of the school must therefore be smart.

In short, Mr. Karlgaard argues, a degree is just a proxy and typical white-collar jobs such as product design, engineer, sales, marketing, non-CPA accounting work and so forth can actually be done by high school graduates as well as college graduates. The reason that these jobs tend to go to college graduates is that employers want some type of guarantee that the candidate can do the job and a college degree functions as that guarantee.

Mr. Karlgaard believes that the tuition paid to the top 10 to 20 colleges will produce a positive return on investment but that the tuition paid to other colleges will product a negative return on investment. Effectively, rather than investing $100,000 or however much in a four-year degree, students and their parents would be better off investing that amount of money in real estate, collectibles, or some other asset class. But this argument fails to acknowledge that although for some positions employers probably could hire high school graduates for less money than college graduates and get the same quality of work, they reality is that they don't now and won't in the future. So even though some high school graduates may be able to just as productive as some college graduates, very, very few will be because they will never be given the chance.

In addition, a college education is not just about maximizing your income. It is also about becoming more worldly. It is about stretching yourself and becoming a more productive member of society. For many and perhaps most, that does not mean maximizing your income. So even if a college degree produces a negative return on a monetary investment, and I don't buy it, there should be no doubt that more education is never a bad thing. Never.