As someone who's a "young person" I find this to be bull****. We were told go to college get a good job. Know how many people I know with a college degree who work menial jobs because that's the best paying gig? Way too many. Don't get me wrong, there are deadbeats. But there are deadbeats in every generation. This myth that people odn't want to work is just that. A myth. One i'd like to see stopped because the issue isn't that we don't want to work, it's that there aren't good jobs out there. In my parents generation, and especially my grandparents generation, you could make a living working 9-5 in a factory. No major skill required just general competency. Now they want you to have a 4 year degree to do help desk support. You know what help desk support is? It's the people who go around and turn your computer on and off and make sure your mouse is plugged in. The basic of the basic. And you know who knows how to do that? Probably about 50% of all "young people"
And we live in the world of the university industrial complex. From 2002-2012 the cost of books rose 82%, 3 times the amount of inflation. From 1980-2016 we've seen public 4 year tuition increase by 300%. Why the increase that high? Inflation is the biggest part of it, but a total of 200% inflation means that there's a built in increase of 50%. Are we getting that much more out of education? Answer would be no. Are teachers being paid more. Not really. I read a number that something high (don't recall and don't care to research it this late at night) was not fulltime professors. So while full time professors may make more (still not at that rate though) there are in general less of them.
So when you hear people get fed up about student loans, they have a semi-valid point. I don't sympathize with them, I don't want their loans absolved, I want to attack the issue atit's core, why is college so expensive? Why do companies require it for menial jobs? Those are the 2 main points of contention. And as far as the people with the debt, I sympathize with them, again you're drilled that you need to go to school to get a good job. You need to and then you do what you're told, you come out and they tell you that you need experience. I avoided college because I didn't want to get myself massively in debt. If I could go back I may. But odds are I'd do things the same that I did. Because having almost no debt is pretty tits.