Also we live in a world where being educated helps but doesn’t always give you a bigger paycheck, the piece of paper you get after paying tens of thousands in tuition (bachelors degree) while not being paid for said paper, is the thing that gets you extra money when you get hired by a company. Even more so if you got a second piece of paper (masters degree).
that's bullshit. of course having a degree means you get to demand a higher salary but that has nothing to do with getting a job. there are so many jobs in tech where you can acquire a certification to prof skills that you've learned on your own for very cheap and employers will be satisfied because they know you know your shit. take computer science and comptia for example. you can get a comp sci job very easily without a degree if you educate yourself and take the cert exam to get a cert.