All I can speak to is my own industry (finance), where you need a bachelor's to get a job as an administrative assistant; however, you'll start at $40K. I can speak firsthand to three major companies in finance who start new college grads at $55K + bonus. I'll take any of that over McD's, anyday. Third-year investment banking bonuses this year averaged $66K, so you have literally thousands of 25 year olds with elite bachelors degrees are walking around this year making $150K. I don't think people realize how wide the gulf between degreed and non-degreed has become. Today is not 1970. There are always going to be slackers with Ph.D.s and serious character flaws. There are always going to be millionaires next door who strike magic with tenth-grade educations. But a degree makes your shot at a better life, where you're well-compensated and well-respected for a normal workload that engages your brain, far more likely, and I want my future 12-year-old to know that. If she makes an insensitive joke about it, I'll tell her to cut it out. There are a lot of truths in the world that are inappropriate for humor. Chalk this one up as one of those.
P.S. If another mother goes nuclear on my kid with a relatively minor event like this as provocation, I will defend my daughter like the mama bear I will be, even if she is wrong. She's mine, and I'll lay down in front of the truck for her.