As far as universities go, there are usually need-based and merit-based scholarships to help defray the cost to a large extent. My family made enough to not qualify for need-based, but were unwilling to pay enough for me to go to anything but a state school with the aid of scholarships. One place I actually turned down offered me an education for just the cost of food and books (I can't remember if I needed to pay dorm costs), but their physics program was kind of a joke. Plus they'd given that large a merit-based scholarship to me, which didn't reflect well on them.
One of my friends qualified for need-based scholarships. They paid for his tuition, living arrangements, books and meal plan. He ended up losing them because he couldn't be bothered to actually work on anything that would result in him getting halfway decent grades, but the fact remains that they exist for state schools.
Furthermore, I have a few friends who have done ROTC. They get their degree, and also valuable (CV-wise) experience as officers in the military. Both of them ended up with terrible jobs, but one of them actually wanted that job (nuclear submariner). This provides another option, and only requires a four-year commitment after school.
Sure, most people who go to college end up paying large amounts of money (either immediately or through loans) but just having a college degree usually makes up for the costs. Plus, at least people who go to college have experienced a culture of learning. Whether they have actually absorbed anything really depends on what they were hoping to get out of it.
I strongly believe that enough value has been added to my life to justify the expenditure and work that went into earning my degrees, but you're right in that this result is not experienced by all consumers of higher education. I've met people who have earned a degree who went on to work in an industry that would have treated them exactly the same way without a degree (one of my friends works in the hospitality industry, and another one is likely to work in a kitchen). I think both of them enjoyed their college experience, but whether they got enough value out of it to justify the large expenditure of money is certainly open for debate.
That said, I agree with the sentiment about how ridiculous it's gotten about how you have to go to college these days. It seems that you either go to college or are considered a failure by much of society. Two of the smartest people I've met have actually never gone to college, and didn't need to, but they'll always have that social stigma.