... in 2001 before going to University than after taking 4 years off to do an undergraduate degree program. Higher Education is in many ways a scam, unless it's for something like engineering or medicine where your degree is your "ticket" in.

Because minimum wage is $13, and prior to myself going back to school 3 years ago, it was $9.
If you are making less money by going back to school you either, did not research the field you were going into, or did not appreciate the field you were in.
Rather than be glib, realize you can go back to your old profession if you so choose. doors are not closed, they are open.

When it comes to general office work, employers just need something differentiate one candidate from another. The truth is anyone can be trained to do office work and an article I read on a study proved it. It found that employee will catch-up to other employees given the opportunity. Get a trade or if you're bright enough, become and engineer or something society really needs. There's nothing wrong with pursuing a classical education, it's just not going to pay the bills in an era where everyone has a undergraduate degree. It's just a matter of time AI will be doing the more mundane office work that a person with an undergraduate degree holds. If you feel you've been left behind because you didn't get a classical education, read books, travel the world, take online classes and watch lectures on YouTube in your spare time. I know so many college grads that haven't picked up a book since graduation. You will definitely catch-up to them. You might find you're the most interesting person in the room.

They retrained you to accept lower pay, in a high-cost province.
So, win for the employers, and Vancouver politicians can continue to brag about "some of the lowest wages in North America". Now, if you were to retrain AND relocate to a place with a cheaper standard of living, well... that would be a problem for them and a win for you.
There was an article about first responders (police, fire) making six figures in NWT, with gold-plated retirement bennies. And even a standard Canadian RCMP or military salary will go 20 to 35 percent further in other provinces.
But no, people stay here and struggle. Meh. Natural beauty is not all that, because widespread hardship and income insecurity. And the robots haven't even really arrived yet.
Hang around and see what they'll offer to retrain you for, when that happens.

it's all just a big ponzi scheme

Education.
I think the gov. set up the whole shitty outdated school system for daycare purposes mostly. They are not teaching anything useful or inovative to students.
Waste of time .
Home schooling is the way to go and guess what?
No bulling of your children to worry about.
And think about it , if parents cant go to work, they cant give that tax money they are required to pay to the gov. each and every cheque, cant do that watching a bunch of children..
The gov. like to keep people working cause they need their tax money to stuff it in their deep pockets.

same result so I went back to school and got my bachelors degree. Now I earn over triple what I did before.

John Taylor Gatto was a former educator who was deeply critical of today's education system. He wrote the The Underground History of American Education. There are YouTube interviews and lectures, also.