if colleges teach you no valuable skills, and only function as a way for employers to 'pre screen' candidates, sure, you are right. (of course, if schools don't teach anything that increases a worker's productivity, then they are pretty useless as a 'pre screen' too.)
However, one would hope that college would actually teach something, and would make the students more productive.
"But" you say "If everyone is more productive, won't their wages stay the same?"
sure, if everyone doubles their productivity, in a fair market, nobody will get a larger cut of the total economic output than they were getting before the productivity increase
However, if everyone's productivity doubles, there will be more economic output to divide. even if your percent of the pie stays the same, it's a bigger pie.
Of course, I'm ignoring inefficiencies here. Obviously, all groups try to maneuver such that they get a larger piece of the pie, but that happens all the time, not just in times of economic growth.
However, one would hope that college would actually teach something, and would make the students more productive.
"But" you say "If everyone is more productive, won't their wages stay the same?"
sure, if everyone doubles their productivity, in a fair market, nobody will get a larger cut of the total economic output than they were getting before the productivity increase
However, if everyone's productivity doubles, there will be more economic output to divide. even if your percent of the pie stays the same, it's a bigger pie.
Of course, I'm ignoring inefficiencies here. Obviously, all groups try to maneuver such that they get a larger piece of the pie, but that happens all the time, not just in times of economic growth.