Completely agree.I don’t disagree that the student loan forgiveness is a mere bandaid to the issue. But also, you talking about non college paths and investment there isn’t going to solve the main issue.
Almost everyone grows up wanting to go to college and have that life experience. It’s extremely valuable for the person to grow personally and socially too. That will still be there even with more trade schools etc.
The issue is that colleges shouldn’t be as expensive as they are. Not even close. It’s one of the more disgusting things we all kind of just accept today.
My wife graduated with a micro biology degree. She worked for the city water company, a brewery, and a corporate/lab type job. She didn't like any of them. She bartends and loves it. She's extremely budget driven and had her student loans paid off by the time she was 30 being, predominately, a server and bartender. It is possible even with "lesser jobs" in people's eyes to still pay off college. She'd constantly would talk about how her coworkers were in so much debt from school but would go out and buy expensive things. School is still too expensive, no doubt, but the vast majority of society is terrible at managing money though which is probably the bigger issue.