>Most people who are getting college degrees nowadays simply can't make enough use of them to even break even.

Which means, most of these positions are in fact 'tails' of the distribution, they don't really exist, they are a net loss vs positions that pay less but do not require diploma. Because more people are getting diplomas than there are jobs really requiring it. If employers CAN get away with requiring a diploma for a position which doesn't really need it - why not doing it? At least it guarantees getting an employee which will be more loyal as he has to repay college debt so needs stable income. And they can get away with it because people falsely believe that college is a path to success and burn enormous money and years of life there.