Math shows it's still a very solid investment to go to college.

Education Level - Median Weekly Income

High School/No College - 668

High School/Some College - 761

Bachelor's - 1101

Master's - 1386

So if you did rack up 100k in student debt to get a bachelor's degree, it would help you make (1101-668)=$433 more dollars per week over someone who went to high school only. $100,000/$433= approx 231 weeks of extra income's worth of loans. That's only 4.5 years, then for the rest of your life you're just making more than your investment.

Of course, you don't make the difference right away as it's the median income level for someone with that has that degree level, and I understand that it's part of the article to say that there's a wealth buffer, but even if you triple the repayment of the investment, it's still worth (in a 40 year career) ~800k in additional money. So you put in 100k, you get 800k. Anyone should make that investment.

Really, it's a wonder that college was every as cheap as it was to begin with. It's a huge return on investment, not only in percent, but in nominal dollars as well. Of course when you give people nearly unlimited access to capital, and shield lenders from any fear of losses through aggressive lending, you're going to spiral up the money supply in that market and get cost to the new maximum level that the market will bear. So now here we are.

As well, colleges have waaaaaay too many extravagant things to solely judge their costs on a repayment in education. There's probably a new market soon to emerge that would aim to be a bare bones educational experience. Go to class, no cafeteria, no sports, no av club etc.