If I didn’t go for university, I think I would have taken up welding.
Alas, friends and family didn’t like the idea of me choosing that route at the time. Things still worked out. I have a pretty good working schedule with no student debt. I am also using the degree I went for.
A danger people get into is getting that degree for the sake of it, like you said. Often, these people are complacent and lack the passion for their fields. In a way, it’s worse than debts.
This is how we get mediocrity. I’m sure you’ve seen this quite a bit in medical, law, etc. People do the bare minimum and never try to magnify their “calling”.
One of the things we are discovering thanks to past generations being fixated on college is the absence of skilled labor and a societal disdain for the trades. Degree inflation means many such workers have needless student debt loads.
And yet people get their panties in a bunch when foreign laborers arrive to do those jobs.