The pedigree required to work at Starbucks goes up, indeed. Half of my friends with degrees do not have jobs in their respective fields.

Easy federal loans got them into an upside down situation from which they may never recover.

I got paid to go to a public university through scholarship, with money on top of free housing and tuition. I could have paid for college, or probably convinced someone to give me a loan given my career track.

There's way too many people who are destroying value by attending college right now, and the bubble will pop. 12 years to get an art history PHD and manage a gas station is not an efficient use of time or work energy.