If the U.S. economy keeps putting downward pressure on non-college wages, people will keep borrowing whatever it costs to have a chance to escape modern serfdom.
I wholeheartedly agree. As a matter of fact, I'd support raising non-college wages, for many reasons. I don't see how free college has to be consistent with lower non-college wages. I don't see how that topic has to be at odds with either 'free college' or 'college by default'.
I see 'free college' and 'college by default' as two separate things, not as one. Just because someone can go to college (for free) doesn't mean someone should. In a 'free college' world, we would still need plenty of not-necessarily-college firefighters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians (and I'm sure there are many other routes that aren't best served by college), but people might not feel the same pressure to load up on debt at such a volatile point in their lives.