"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
There will always be the median that believe that if you do not have a degree you're not intelligent and end up at a low end job. Sadly, those low end jobs still need done and not just by anyone. That doesn't mean by all means that you couldn't go to McDonalds and work your way from the bottom to the top - no sir, a piece of paper does not dictate work ethic. That, college will never be able to teach nor will it make people realize that any job there is, is a job worth doing and someone has to do it.
So do not downplay people who do not have degrees or didn't go to college, what about skilled trades people? They didn't go to a traditional college yet in 15-20 years a plumber will be making more than your psychiatrist. Also take into account how hard it is for a graduate to even find a job in their relevant field these days, one could almost we're over saturated with degrees these days.
There's alternatives to college and it's not life or death if you do not go. Like I mentioned skilled trades people stand to be the biggest benefactors in the coming years with an aging population and the fact that every moron has been preaching "college, college, college" for years and have destroyed the good name that trades people have had is setting us up for failure.
And for the record I do not have a degree and I'm doing just fine.