A lot of people simply don't have what it takes to obtain a college degree. Fortunately for them, a lot of jobs even in today's society and even in the future don't and won't require a college education. To be sure, most - though not all - of those don't pay as well as most - but not all - jobs requiring a college degree do. But whether you say "you're a failure if you don't have a college degree" or merely "you need a college degree to be successful", I disagree. Any serious discussion of family models has to take account the large group of people for whom college is not well-suited and who don't need it either. Those people can be perfectly successful in their personal and professional lives, even if on average their incomes will be lower. And postponing children until after a long college education simply doesn't apply in their cases.