Okay let's clear a couple of things up.
On a personal note: -My parents paid for my full ride. Graduating debt free was the best advantage they could have given me. It allowed me to take risks and jobs other people couldn't because I'm not working with a huge debt overhead.
-I did not deserve this gift. I was a bad son, I didn't do well in school and didn't appreciate the sacrifices they were making for me at the time. Now that I know what I know, I wish that they would have had me gotten loans and paid them if I had proven myself, or left me with them had I failed (which I nearly did). Even though they aren't asking, I'm repaying them for my tuition because I feel guilty for how hard my father has worked on my behalf, past my becoming an adult that should have been self-sufficient.
Economically: -You are correct, most US degrees are not remotely worth their price. The higher education system is bloated, corrupt, and predatory. At some-point 4 year degrees became a minimum barrier to entry. The price of textbooks/ profs requiring is infuriating.
-What can't endure, won't. This fucked up and unstable system is destined to come crashing down, imminently. If the peak of the ed bubble isn't now, it's soon. I personally look forward to watching the world of hurt universities will be in.
Anthropologically: -Every generation says the subsequent one is a bunch of lazy spoiled shits. There's a letter I read talking about how the latest generation of kids in universities are spoiled and lazy. It was written in the 1700s.
-What a parent should or shouldn't do in terms of resource allocation and the independence of their children is entirely dependent on their unique situation and relationship. If you have a wayward fuck up of a kid like me, then it is much wiser to keep your resources held for your own retirement or at least your other children. Then fuck-up-in-chief carries the liability of their higher ed(that they, as a legal adult choose to pursue) and if they pull it off you can pay off their debts, and any failures are their own, instead of a burden on the welfare of the other children/family.
-A solution to this on a societal level is a matter of great debate, reducing to your personal philosophy as to the role of a government and the duties of the state. So I don't think we need to argue any of that.
In the end, no one is entitled to anything and you only will have what you build for yourself.