My stem grad friends are doing well.

My music and archaeology friends are not. Unfortunately, the cult runs so deep that some were convinced the solution to being unemployed was a master's. True, they signed the papers, but a whole industry exists to deceive them.

So, you have 50+k in debt, are in your mid-late 20's, and you:

will not qualify for a mortgage (so you keep paying rent instead of at least buying something with SOME value for that money)

Cannot start any sort of enterprise because you can't save, because your disposable income goes to loans/rent (see above)

Cannot reasonably save for retirement

And god help you if you want a kid or want to save for their college education. We made sure ours is an EU citizen so she doesn't have to deal with quite so much of this bullshit (hopefully).

The problem you're having is not with education itself. But with education AFFORDABILITY.

Music and Archaeology would be incredible majors if the students didn't have to go into debt.

Education, university, and all of the social connections, experiences and knowledge gained are wonderful for a kid in their early 20s and really makes for a well rounded person and betters society by making people good educated citizens.

However the affordability is an issue. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

A crushing amount of student loan debt stinks, and so does a low quality degree that teaches little if actual substance. These are not wonderful things.

Not every degree is low quality. I and most of my school friends benefited immeasurably from college education.

Universities make a boatload more money peddling basket weaving degrees in social sciences, psychology, athlete nutrition, literature of forgotten tribes of Egypt, history of hair weaving vs. engineering because the prices charged are nearly the same while the outlay needed to "train" a person for b.s. degree is smaller.

This means that universities are incentivized to peddle b.s. degrees.

I don't know...I still see plenty of STEM grads, even CS grads and even from good schools, doing developer bootcamps.