TL;DR: people without a college education earn less, on average. Yes, in the software development/startup industry that is not necessarily the case, but in society in general it absolutely is. So unless your son is 100% guaranteed to go into programming (and please, please don't force him to) a college fund might still be a wise choice.
> So unless your son is 100% guaranteed to go into programming
And let's keep in mind that today's cultural norms in software dev probably won't be the same in the future. Maybe earnings will be much lower, or they'll stay high but companies will be more selective.
True. In fact, maybe it's best to extrapolate a college fund out to be insurance - nothing more, nothing less. Maybe the entire college education system will have come falling down by the time your child is 18, but I'll bet there is still something they can use it for to give themselves a significant leg up in life.
As far a programming, it also depends upon where they want to work. Most enterprise setups still prefer that college paper. For now, having it opens more doors. I hope that changes sooner than later.
TL;DR: people without a college education earn less, on average. Yes, in the software development/startup industry that is not necessarily the case, but in society in general it absolutely is. So unless your son is 100% guaranteed to go into programming (and please, please don't force him to) a college fund might still be a wise choice.