I was lucky enough to go to college in Europe, where it's basically free, to study something that can be transposed anywhere (CS, as opposed to for example law). I then moved to the US debt free. I'm in my late 30's and I own (as in "no mortgage") my house, while most of my coworkers (some in their 40s) are still paying off their student loan and have to live with 2 or 3 other roommates.

I'm all for good education, and obviously not the best judge since I didn't go to college in the US, but I don't get how this is a good deal for students. Especially when one knows that the cost of tuition is mostly artificial (I think there were a few good articles about that on the front page of HN recently).