

The problem is really that people think you need to pay $350,000, but you shouldn’t seriously pay more than $40,000. Higher education as a concept isn’t a scam, but certain schools like the Ivy Leagues and private universities absolutely are. While there certainly are benefits to going to a prestigious school, most public state universities in the United States are excellent and hold good reputation. The quality of education you’ll get at a local state college will only be like 10% worse than Harvard or Yale, but will cost 10x less. There’s also the argument for technical schools or apprenticeships; while potentially more limiting, these also offer a significantly more affordable path of higher education for Americans.
While you won’t necessarily get a bonus or anything for having a degree that aligns with the role you perform at a company, you aren’t getting that job without the degree. College degrees serve as a way to move between the American de jure caste system; you can either work in low-wage jobs that won’t require a degree, or you pursue higher education to get access to the ones that do.
Neither are guilty of anything more than surviving.
What the fuck are you doing trying to create scenarios where you can blame the workers? This is exactly what the ownership class wants, for people to create bullshit purity tests that further divide the proletariat. There is no ethical job under capitalism, nothing that can be done without a drop of malice, because our system has been designed to maximize cruelty.