Sounds about right. The growth of the US economy in recent years has been in the high tech and knowledge industries. Basic economics indicates the US continues to do what we do better (knowledge based production) and outsource what we do more poorly (cheap labor-intensive work). It's no different than growing corn in Iowa and lettuce in California.

Just hope we can come up with a good way to handle the secondary social issues that go along with it.

Is this a function of degree-requiring jobs increasing in income, or the real income for jobs not requiring degrees dropping precipitously? Possibly both? It feels like jobs where the employer does not demand a degree from you have become the bottom of the bottom, exarcebating the inequality.

By "college degree" does this mean university degree or community college diplomas? Or both/either?

And what about the differences varying between, say, a liberal arts degree and an engineering degree. It seems like all my liberal arts friends end up working in jobs that don't require a degree or are currently unemployed.

The source of the chart indicates that it is a discussion of bachelor's degrees.

with the growing gap between the rich and the poor, along with the world wide recession many college and university grads are NOT finding work, or when they do it is contract, or service industry...These will not be living wage earning jobs, nor will they provide for these grads to pay back much of the student debt taken on. This is a cruel joke on those who have done all that they are supposed to do, to have that better life.

I thought of this post on Sociological Images today when I read another post at getrichslowly.org (http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/05/11/spare-change-2/). Commenter El Nerdo begins his comment with the following, "Maybe the stats are missing some Gen-X cliches, like the overeducated & underpaid coffee barista with a PhD? The problem with statistics is that while they account for the aggregated population, they often have little to do with the individual."

Absolutely. What happens to this chart once the over-50 crowd is cut out? Bachelor's degrees are the new high school diploma.

I find this hard to believe for current graduates. I went to law school and know people who are working minimum wages jobs because there are so few jobs. I know people from undergrad who were smart but couldn't get a job and instead worked for minimum wage at Starbucks. Is this looking at college graduates who are graduating this year or even over the past few years? Probably not. It's looking at people who graduated decades ago when there were well paying white collar jobs even for people who majored in the liberal arts. That just isn't the case anymore.

People who give up 4-6 years of their life, pay upwards of $100k, obtain skills needed by the marketplace, and improve the quality of life for others should be adequately compensated. I see no reason why a college-educated person shouldn't be making upwards of 100% of a non-college educated person.

Yes, but they often have huge amounts of debt. If you're not wealthy, you get two options. If you're comfortable enough to have access to a good secondary education and good credit, you get to go to college and become an indentured servant. If you are truly poor, you get to be a wage slave at best, unemployed in the middle and imprisoned at worst.

I'm not disputing the truth of this chart, but I'd like to share my very different personal experience. As a recent college graduate working full-time in a job that requires only a high-school diploma, on food stamps and unable to afford any health care (for 2 serious illnesses), this only makes me feel more pathetic. I really regret going to college. If I hadn't gone, I'd be able to have the same job I have now, except I wouldn't be $30,000 in debt, which would mean I'd probably be able to afford health insurance and maybe begin to save up for a car or down payment on a house. I've been in poverty my whole life, and dreamed of college for as long as I can remember, thinking it would be a way to a job I enjoyed, providing enough income to take care of my parents and have a family of my own. The reality is very different, and now all I feel is despair.