Sorry, I'm going through a lot right now, and maybe I'm incoherent.
Most jobs I have applied to put at their number one request a college education. That's why I care about academia, as I'm seeing real life consequences in my material well-being due to my lack of a formal education.
Indeed, you did not say garbagemen or anything like it, but I live in a country where college defines your path in life. I've been sold that this is what respectable human being in society needs to have for years, and I cannot simply say "okay, you're gonna be inferior than others (Economically, chances wise, socially, etc) from now on, and that is OK".