I know two PhD grads in their early 30's that married last year, and have a newborn baby this year.
They have virtually no savings and both have
student loan debt up the whazzu. They both have expensive car loans. They just bought a house end of last year that's WAAYYY over their paygrade. (House is ~$400K, they barely put down 10% and they both have to work $70K jobs each just to afford it).
And guess what...the Einstein dad just got laid off.
This is how the "smart" people in America are planning their lives.

I forgot that when I was listing the the various brainwashing results... the diploma and associated student loan.
Glad I figured that one out early. I've officially only got a grade 12 education but I've learned a lot more by actually living than most diploma holders do in years of expensive "education".
I realized early (about grade 4 or 5) that teachers were just overpaid babysitters. I didn't trust what they told me after hearing them lie to my classmates. I saw that they worked from the teachers' version of the same textbooks they gave us. I figured I'd rather trust the half dozen professors who wrote the book than some bozo who read it and obviously didn't understand it.
Libraries are free and the internet merely costs a little extra quality control. Be your own school.