Na . . . He's taller . . . better looking . . . not a Scientologist . . . not gay . . . and has better taste in women.
The best gift one can have in life is the gift of glib. Being able to BS will take you a lot further than having a BS.
In order for the USA to compete in the world market, there has to be an equilibrium established between our standard of living and the third world. That is a basic law of economics. The USA standard of living has to decrease while the third world increases to an equilibrium level. This is going to be difficult for the American people to accept. The only alternative is to impose tariffs. Big business will not allow the politicians to do that. Otherwise the country will just have to get use to recessions and high unemployment and underemployment for everyone regardless of their college education and degrees. It is a fact of life that the majority of the people have not realized. There has to be a major deflation of wages and assets. The Feds cannot continue a policy of pumping money into the economy but must surrender eventually to deflation leading to an equilibrium of world economies. Most people are in denial.
Can't you be successful without education? There are stories of people making it big (mostly in sales careers) without college education and in some cases without a high school diploma. If the Law Student in the OP invested 250K in real estate multi unit building, would he been better off?
No! High school is a minimum any longer just to survive. And you don't have to attend law school or a high end college but some secondary education even if it is at a solid community college is important as well. Individuals making it without a high school education is a thing of the past. There is way too much competition any longer. You now have to have the natural ability that can't be taught in school along with some intelligence to survive. There is one single successful individual out there that will tell a young person to blow off school and immediately enter the workforce.
If outsourcing does not result in new jobs for Americans, then how are these Americans able to buy anything then? Are we all living off unemployment? Outsourcing has some benefits also. You would not be able to buy a pencil for less than $1 if it were made by union workers. (Though I'm sure it would have been of a much better quality /sarcasm)
What would be your advice to an 18 year old who is thinking about a degree that would be most profitable investment wise?
There are too many jobs and opportunities closed to people without education. One has to get their foot in the door and the doors are closed without education. The primary purpose of education is to learn how to learn once you have a job.