So the average college graduate does better than the average non-college graduate if they end up with similar work histories.

OK, but those who start and don’t finish end up in debt without the benefits. So you need to factor in the chance of not completing college and the associated drawbacks and factor that into the cost benefit analysis for deciding to start college. Otherwise the argument is about as valid as saying that playing the lottery makes financial sense given the amount of money that goes to the average lottery winner.

Second, the average outcome isn’t the only metric that matters. The average person who pays for most kinds of insurance will get less out of it than they pay in, that doesn’t mean that it’s always a better idea to be uninsured. Hell, the average player in a Russian roulette game turns out fine. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that tends to dominate conversations around college and particularly student loans. If the majority are better off after college, great. But if have to drop out due to forces beyond your control, or the degree you pursue suddenly becomes less valuable because of an unforeseen shift in the economy, you can still end up buried to your eyeballs in debt with nothing to show for it.

Third, even if you make enough additional income to mathematically offset the debts you accumulate in college, you can’t get back the lost time. Many people have to delay major milestones in life because they’re weighed down by debts on top of all the other brutal economic realities out there. Good luck buying a house. Hope you weren’t too eager to have kids.

Fourth, college might be a better option than not going to college, but it can still seem bad when both options are shitty due to an economy that exists to enrich billionaires.

I’m not saying it’s a mistake to go to college. I just think the article is glossing over the very real problems that come from our atrocious student loan policies, and that perhaps some of the pessimism around college is a symptom of the economy as a whole being rigged against us.