That being said, I don’t think his overall approach is bad for many people in his target demo. IIRC, most of his callers aren’t asking if they should go into debt for college, they are trying to figure out how to get out all sorts of debt they already have. This is where he actually does seem to add value.
Household debt is crippling for so many people. Several childhood friends had parents that struggled with debt, several childhood friends have ended up with debt burdens themselves, and some of them swear that Dave Ramsey (or a similar approach) helped them get their finances in order.
These are people mostly doing blue collar or government work- delivery drivers, teachers, construction workers, etc. Many of them just have predisposition toward illogical or undisciplined behavior with money and do things like take a loan for a vacation, a wedding, or student loans for a 2nd masters in English literature. For them a good answer really is to be allergic debt, to cut up the credit cards, put cash into envelopes for budgeting, and cut costs to get out of debt.
Ramsey and his ilk drive people like me crazy because I like to believe I have decent understanding of money and finance. His advice is wrong for me, and it was probably wrong for the young man you reference. But for the many, many people who don’t think like me an who do things like just look at the monthly payments on what they buy or who use debt to buy status items Dave Ramsey’s advice is often useful.