We've got to stop letting 18-22 year-olds make incredibly expensive life/career decisions with zero information.
15 years ago when I was doing the university thing, I was surrounded on all sides by adults who were chock full of "helpful" information. While this career advice was probably sound back in the 70s and 80s, the world has drastically changed. It's pure lunacy to expect 18-22 year olds to not only recognize the bullshit, but also figure out the actual truth.
Zero information? Young people have so much information: government job statistics, job growth predictions, free career advice, peer-led career forums, etc.
They just ignore all of it.
Even if a young person does know it exists and can parse it, it is often the case that every authority figure in a young person's life is giving bad information. Often times your teachers, guidance counselor, school administrators, and parents are pressuring you to go to some middling 4 year institution. We spend 18 years training kids to treat the adults in their life as authority figures, expecting them to make their own decision against the desires of these authority figures is naive.
It's quite easy to come across it with a Google search.
> lack the tools to parse
The only "tool" you need is the ability to read.
> bad information
Which is not "zero information" anyway.
If what you say is true, then we are failing our students far far earlier that when they are making decisions related to college and it's futile to address this problem before we address why they lack these tools by ages 17 to 18.
All throughout high school I was told that I would be unable to become a software dev without college. I dropped out of high school, work as a software dev and make more per year than any of the people who said I wouldn't be able to do that. They simply aren't the kind of people to ask if you are planning a career that isn't in unionized government work, most of them have never done anything else.
The reality is a degree isn't required its only one path of many someone can take. And often those with degrees eventually follow the same path those without went. The difference is they are four years behind in career progression and thousands in debt.
A more specific proposal to consider: Congress could revert the 2005 decision that made private student loans much harder to discharge in bankruptcy. I don't know if that would be enough for the problem to then resolve itself, as I don't know what percentage of the student loan debt is made of private vs federal loans, but it's something specific and targets a particular feedback loop.
When you have visibly aging people in their 30s saying stuff like "adulting is so hard gaiz!!", the problem is the culture.