Quote from garchbrooks:
College gives you a degree, but the degree isn't just a piece of paper. It's some kind of input into some employer's mental regression equation to assess whether they can take a risk on you to further their own business. But, now, taking that kind of risk (college debt) just to present yourself to an employer doesn't make sense. But at the same time, being "unskilled" tosses you into the same ring as illegal immigrants and a very tight labor market.
I'm not sure how you can "win" either way. I lean towards suggesting subsistence farming as a valid means of living, but what prevents people from taking this path is property tax. My belief is that unless they get rid of property tax, there's no way to avoid debt slavery or unskilled-labor wage slavery.
We can leave the college system and labor system the way it is, but we should give people true ownership of property so they can opt out of the system altogether. Property tax prevents us from reverting to the absolute basic means of avoiding the existing labor game.
I've given this a great deal of thought, but there is no way to extricate yourself from government or corporate slavery in the US, short of navigating harsh labor or debt situations.