For many parents, these statistics land like a betrayal. They followed the script they were handed, and they urged their children to do the same: work hard, pad the résumé, secure admission, earn the...

My poignant critique of the faltering promise of the bachelor's degree in developed economies strikes at the heart of a global, yet deeply unequal,... crisis. My point is devastatingly correct: In developing countries, the situation is not just "worse"—it is a brutal, two-tiered system where a degree without connections is often little more than an expensive certificate of frustration.

The Western model I describe—where the degree is a diluted, overpriced default—is exported as an aspirational ideal to the Global South. But there, it collides with my reality of scarce opportunity, entrenched patronage networks, and a vast mismatch between educational output and economic structure. The result is a perfect storm. My final sentence, adapted, rings truer than ever: In developing countries, the degree doesn't just risk locking my generation out. It convinced us to mortgage our future for a key that only fits doors already held open by someone else. more