[brodouevencode]

Maybe I didn't do a good job of stating my point, and my example reenforces that college is ultimately a good thing. So please let me clarify:

The point was that everyone graduating high school in the 1990s and onward were constantly fed this idea that you graduate high school and then do your four years (even if that requires racking up a ton of debt) that you'd live a successful, productive life making enough money to at least be comfortable. The averages are proving this to not only to not be true, but that debt incursion is causing major drags on the entire economy.

Incursion of debt without a plan of payoff is ignorant. No bank would ever lend money to you for a business if your business plan didn't contain sufficient enough detail of how you planned to pay them back. Working while in school (and thereby avoiding debt) is IMO the best solution to those who want to attend college but may not be able to get full-ride scholarships and aren't financially well off.

To be fair, many (if not most) university systems do not make this easy. Night classes are generally hard to come by, there are tons of fees that non-traditional students don't see benefit from, many coursework plans are so rigid to the point where pre-reqs will derail schooling for semesters at a time, etc.