This is my opinion: education and learning will definitely lead to a better life. But listen carefully — it is learning and education, not merely a degree. While a degree may be a specific subset of education, learning and education is the broader domain.

Without education, people resort to ignorance or brute force to survive. Take a farmer, for instance. If he doesn’t understand pest control or fertilization, how can he grow his crops well? The vegetables will be eaten by pests before harvest, or the crops may die from nutrient deficiency. Without knowledge, he suffers — relying only on hard labor and guesswork. But if he is educated, he can use pesticides or deterrent technologies to manage pests effectively.
This principle applies to all fields: before one can contribute professionally or productively, practical knowledge is essential.

Our society overemphasizes white-collar jobs, which offer only 20–30% of the total employment opportunities. Yet, more than half the generation chases after these "glamorous" professions — doctor, lawyer, accountant, architect, engineer, finance, energy (O&G), etc. Meanwhile, professions deemed “less glamorous” — agriculture, fisheries, forestry, elderly care, childcare, clerical work, technicians, cleaners, factory operators, security, service staff — are widely avoided, as if they lack any future.

This is similar to a well-known social observation: most women pursue the top 10% of men. It’s a repeating pattern. Everyone wants to be seen as smart and capable. Who wants to admit they are "bodoh" (stupid) for choosing a less glamorous path? So naturally, families forcefully send their children to pursue degrees that supposedly open doors to white-collar jobs. But the end result? The job market can only absorb about 30% of the graduates into white-collar roles. What happens to the rest? They’re left with no choice but to downgrade their expectations — either shifting away from white-collar sectors or doing something unrelated.

No — a degree doesn’t guarantee a better life. But without one, you may not even get a chance to enter that competitive space. It’s just that, in reality, those who end up on the losing end lost out due to competition, not because education failed.

Meanwhile, the ignored sectors? Nobody bats an eye at the worker shortages in 3D jobs — dirty, dangerous, and difficult. Every day, industry players complain that locals don’t want these jobs. So how do we fill the gap? By relying on foreign workers.

This is a natural flow of societal behavior. Just like 90% of women chase the top 10% of men, 90% of undergraduates chase the top 30% of white-collar jobs. The result? Oversupply at the top, and severe neglect at the bottom.

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If I were to reverse this set of thinking -

If can't find local workers for 3R, then we rely on foreign workers as solution,
If can't find your partner locally = perhaps looking for foreign life partner maybe an answer to those still searching ? Think about it.