I find the arguement disingenuous, just to support the author's conclusion. only one sentence to the fact that the college graduate would have a higher standard of living his entire life other than retirement, following the author's assumptions. the college graduate can still easily reduce his standard of living to a level above the high school graduate and save more for retirement, if he so chooses(though the averages do not support this happening). also who really thinks the average 18 year old high school graduate isn't going to blow the ~17K on something(probably a car) and invest it in an index fund. if the high school graduate spends the ~17K, then he loses almost 600K from the retirement and shrinks the gap considerably and if he misses out on the early years like most people the whole advantage disappears.
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