2 things:
1. Rural's description earlier about the school where he (she?) teaches sounds like my idea of what colleges are supposed to be. This may be contentious but I tend to think that when you go to college, aren't willing or able to work, and your parents don't support you, the bottom line is that you can't afford college. Some do it anyway. The student's at Rural's school either work their asses off or don't. Some work their asses off and, unfortunately, still can't "afford" to graduate. Would they be able to "afford" their loans if they'd taken them out instead -- in the same sense of the word "afford"? (By which I mean: whatever the reason for their circumstances, their circumstances don't seem to allow it.)
--Disclaimer: this comes from a person who worked through college, got no parental support, took out loans and went to an overpriced school because I didn't know any better at the time.
Sure I'm glad people who can't afford it can get the degree anyway and possibly increase their earning power and potential. The unfortunate thing that often happens, though, is that people go into debt essentially FOR LIFE and thus reduce their earning power as X% of their income is going to pay for loans + interest. (Those who pay their loans over 15, 20 years, or longer, that is -- not mustachians.) There was an article in Harper's recently talking about people who graduated with $50K in SL debt, and who now have over $100K because they couldn't afford their payments, penalties, and interest. And it keeps climbing exponentially. This is the nasty side of compound interest.
2. The comments about the Bachelor of Liberal Arts being a specialization in "nothing": do you mean to imply as many have that it is a "useless" degree? That is pigheaded. The school I went to has a self-designed curriculum where you can combine seemingly-disparate subjects and study what you're actually interested in, but which isn't always offered in the choice of majors. Therefore the emphasis is on Learning and not necessarily Employability. To me, that is a legitimate way to think about college even if it's different from YOUR reasons for going. This coming from a person whose BLA degree has not done much for them in terms of jobs.
But that's a separate issue re. how to pay for it. I am the only person in my immediate family to get an undergrad degree. It could have been in underwater basket weaving, I just knew I had to do it at whatever cost. Well, I'm still paying for it. Although I couldn't really "afford" it, it's now a personal decision whether it was worth it or not.