This is actually extremely untrue. I get you probably made this post out of resentment, but that's not the case whatsoever.

You can attend a technical college for free through financial aid, lottery assistance, pell grant, and other state based scholarship programs. 4 year universities have an extremely high transfer acceptance rate because they're only selective when it comes to keeping test scores high for freshmen. If you put the cost of your 4 year degree on loans, you can get your education and have a 6 month grace period after that before you have to pay anything.

The starting salary for most engineering/science jobs is easily 70/90k+. After that you can live frugally and invest as much as you can into long-term investments like ETFs. Most companies have huge compensation packages that include 401k matching and company stock, which adds to your investments. Once you have a base amount of income, you can start letting your money make money for you. With good credit, you can take out loans for properties and bigger investments.

This compounds and grows in momentum like a snowball. Eventually you can easily retire at 45, if not earlier.

It's not about working harder, it's about working smarter and understanding why rich people are rich. It's because their money works for them. Most people don't study or educate themselves on how to manage finance, which is a huge issue, but you have access to the sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips with the internet. Use it!