Is college really worth it?

[Hissyspit]

2. OVERALL, degrees greatly increase lifetime earnings. REPORT: "Lifetime Earnings Soar with Education"

This is GENERALIZED, of course, but education (which can not be lost or taken away, for the most part) is the thing that makes the divisions between economic class more permeable.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/a/edandearnings.htm

Lifetime Earnings Soar with Education
Masters degree worth $2.5 million income over a lifetime

By Robert Longley, About.com Guide

Dec 31 2011
How much is higher education worth in cold hard money? A college master's degree is worth $1.3 million more in lifetime earnings than a high school diploma, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report titled "The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings" (.pdf) reveals that over an adult's working life, high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn $1.2 million; those with a bachelor's degree, $2.1 million; and people with a master's degree, $2.5 million.

Persons with doctoral degrees earn an average of $3.4 million during their working life, while those with professional degrees do best at $4.4 million.

"At most ages, more education equates with higher earnings, and the payoff is most notable at the highest educational levels," said Jennifer Cheeseman Day, co-author of the report.

The figures are based on 1999 earnings projected over a typical work life, defined as the period from ages 25 through 64.