College Degree: "Necessary but Not Sufficient"

In "Capital Commerce" in U.S. News, James Pethokoukis quotes a paragraph from the Wall Street Journal which concludes that a college degree is "Necessary but not sufficient".

The paragraph that is used to make that argument in the Wall Street Journal is "...in the economic expansion that began in 2001 and now appears to be ending, the inflation-adjusted wages of the majority of U.S. workers didn't grow, even among those who went to college. The government's statistical snapshots show the typical weekly salary of a worker with a bachelor's degree, adjusted for inflation, didn't rise last year from 2006 and was 1.7% below the 2001 level..."

In the U.S. News article, Pethokoukis takes issue with the conclusion made in the Wall Street Journal article's conclusion. His general feelings include that the rate of inflation is overstated; he believes that government numbers may be understating wage growth, and, he suggests that the Wall Street Journal article ignores total compensation such as health and retirement benefits.

To back up his position Pethokoukis uses another section of the Wall Street Journal article,"...College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the purview of blue-collar workers only. What employers want from workers nowadays is narrower, more abstract and less easily learned in college.... Globalization and technology have altered the types of skills that earn workers a premium wage; in many cases, those skills aren't learned in college classrooms..."

In his article, Pethokoukis calls this the "solution to the "so-called" problem".

I disagree with James Pethokoukis. I think the Wall Street Journal makes its point well. College degrees are just the minimum acceptable level of education that a high school diploma was 50 years ago. I remember when businesses would not interview you without a high school diploma. Now, businesses will not even read your resume if you don't have a college degree.

Why is Pethokoukis wrong? Why has a basic college degree become outdated?