they can't afford it and a college education no longer guarantees you a good wage outside of very specialized and difficult fields of study. also fewer and fewer people are prepared for college, as our secondary and primary education systems have gotten worse.

in the 1990s you could major in English from a cheap state school and walk off to a 40K job. You maybe had 5-10K in college debt. in the 2020s you major in English from a top tier school and you're lucky to get a job that pays you 30K a year, if you can find one at all. Your debt is more like 20-40K. This is pretty much true of other majors as well, even basic technical ones.

Meanwhile the COL from the 90s has tripled or quadrupled. So your purchasing power is even effectively been dropped to like 1/6 of what it was in the 90s.

My no name company hires data entry workers for about 45K to start. We only hire people from top tier universities with specialized degrees, and we have an over abundance of applicants, that's why we can be so picky. Our mid tier employes have to have Masters degrees from top 10 uni and are only making 50-60K to start. if you went to a state university we throw your resume in the trash.