I think it's more nuanced than that. America in particular has incredibly high education costs and a mercantile payback system. This is coupled with companies m

I think it's more nuanced than that. America in particular has incredibly high education costs and a mercantile payback system. This is coupled with companies making ludicrous demands on qualifications so people feel they need to have a degree. In turn, graduates are branded as failures if they don't land "college level jobs" because they're saddled with debt that needs paying off. Lack of jobs seems like an equally important problem here. It's not like if you didn't have a degree you'd be in a better situation. The only difference is that because you have a huge loan, having a low paid job is now a problem. Maybe a better question is, can you survive on a low paid job if you didn't have student loan repayments? This could be fixed with means-tested payback, like the UK system (also student loans don't affect your credit here). Or simply by making education free, like most of Europe. There are large intangible benefits to college education. One of them is it strongly promotes mobility (getting out of your home town) and cultural/diversity tolerance. Overwhelmingly in the UK, college towns voted to remain for example. For many people going to university is their first time away from their parents, and it's a transition period between living at home and true independence.