So you're advising him to drop out of school like Gates & Jobs because it worked for them?
You really are capped without a degree. I do fairly well in the medical field only because of the overtime, otherwise I'd be capped around $45-60k for the rest of my life...

A college education is the best long term option. In short you may rack up some debt ( depending how much you work during school ) and the job market isn't the best right now. Like mentioned before, without college, 95% of the time your max salary is capped ( according to a survey I just made up). I went the college route and after school my friends had more disposable income than i did ( because of my student loans cc debt etc ). But as I started paying that off and my salary started increasing I'm now in a better position than my non college friends. So college is a good long term option, won't help you too much in the first 5 years or so, but I highly encourage it.

2 out of 300 million + people? What is the average income of college educated people vs non college educated people? Oh and see how many good paying jobs you can get at Microsoft and Apple without a degree right now.

Also most of the success story of these people are usually inventors, investment related or started working at a start up company. I would like to see a low level clerk rise up from the bottom ranks to become CEO in today's world. I am not saying it can't happen, but chances are very rare.

Nothing is guarantee in life. The degree will just give you more options compare to not having one. That's all it is. Do you want to lose a position simply because one person has a degree and you don't? You can't even be a cop without any degree in most civilized states. It doesn't have to be criminal related, it can be for psychology for all they care.

If you think the market is bad for college grads, try being a non college grad with no technical skills (i.e. licensed contractor). It really is all relative. There are guys bragging about making 40K as a store manager, yet I have seen 21 years old fresh out of college making 80K as a junior engineer.