2019 college admissions bribery scandal

In 2019 a completely unsurprising scandal came to light. High-profile celebrities as well as other high net worth individuals were exposed for having bribed colleges and universities into accepting their kids. Nobody with common sense was surprised by this but I along with others still had to ask the question of why? Why would rich people care if their kids got into college or not? Everyone knows that rich kids don't actually need any kind of higher learning because their parents are going to take care of them anyway so what's the point? The parents know just as well as anyone does that having a degree just looks good. Its a signal that the degree holder is at least somewhat intelligent which definitely isn't always true but that's a topic for another discussion.

The 2019 college admissions scandal brought two glaring issues about college to light:

1. Going to college is more about giving off the appearance of being intelligent and knowledgeable than actually acquiring useful skills and knowledge. Think about it, most people would LOVE to be able to legitimately say they have a degree from Harvard whether they actually learned anything or not. Degrees are increasingly becoming more of a vanity prop than an actual possession of substance.
2. It's not about what you know but who you know. Rich people have the power, money, and influence to propel their kids WAY past a regular person. Little Johnny or Susie can study hard for twelve years making great grades the whole time hoping to get into one of their preferred colleges with no guarantee so they apply to several schools hoping to get into one or two then somewhere across the tracks, a rich parent is gearing up to pay their kids way into college even though the kids shows absolutely no academic prowess and would NEVER get in on his or her own merit. I once worked at a restaurant that was owned by a guy who was 32 at the time. This guy was college-educated and so were several other employees at the job. When I worked there I always wondered how a 32-year-old guy could own his own restaurant outright. One day it was revealed to me that the guy didn't put up ANY of the money to own the restaurant. It turns out his father was super rich and owned his own construction company. The father put up 1.5 million dollars for the son to "own" the restaurant. That is a classic example of just knowing the right people. The other college graduates at the restaurant were just regular employees because they didn't have rich fathers. A college degree without rich parents is basically toilet paper.