On the other hand if your grandparents and parents hadn't had to save so much to send their kids to college, what else could they have done with the money? Sure they might have "wasted" it on lavish living, but they might also have invested in something (like starting a company) which could have grown and given their children an even better future.

I don't buy that "forcing" people to work hard and live frugally if they want to their kids to go to college is in any way a good thing.