People feed you only when you're hungry."

You can get hung in this country for disparaging higher education but the wrath I expected from telling the person yesterday that getting a degree and getting stuck in a minimum wage job was a bad investment did not materialise.  Here are some responses.

I graduated with a finance degree and two years related experience. Even with this, it took me over 1,000 (yes, you read that right, 1,000 and I stopped counting over 1,000 'cause it was getting me depressed) applications to get my first entry level job. I made $25,000 as a receptionist/accountant/LAN administrator/salesgal. I took that job, added it to the resume, and kept applying. 6 months later, I moved up to a pure accounting job making $30,000. A year later, I moved to another job making $40,000 and so on.
Entry level is just that entry level. We're not supposed to stay there. As a mentor once told me "People feed you only when you're hungry."

And

I have to agree that if you have a four year college degree and you are working a minimum wage job, something went wrong there. The very least you could do is be an administrative assistant for $20k a year, if you have NO other skills. There seems to be a disconnect between college and a job - lots of people just get a degree, any degree, and then are surprised when no one hires them because they can't actually do anything useful.

The point is that getting an education is not a bad investment.  Getting an education and then working in a minimum wage job is a bad investment. 

Any time we spend money on anything, it is an investment.  We weigh the cost, or we should, against the investment.  A college degree is absolutely necessary today but it is not the meal ticket it once was.

Got some more information from the reader so we will take a look tomorrow and get a plan.