Education for education's sake

So I just read this article and was astonished. Financial aid, student loans, college, degrees, and jobs have kind of been something on my mind lately. My husband and I have a combined student debt load of between 40 and 50,000 dollars in student loans to pay which equates out to about $500 a month. Compared to a lot of people our age we got off easy. Still, it's a lot of money!
I have noticed a lot lately that a lot of jobs want you to have some sort of bachelor's degree, they don't particularly care what it is just as long as you have one. Please tell me why you need to have a degree in something to be a secretary?
I am a firm believer that an education is never a waste of time, BUT does everyone need an expensive 4 year degree to get a job? I don't think so. I understand nursing degrees and engineering degrees and things of that nature but I don't understand why you would choose to spend between 50 and $80,000 on a 4 year liberal arts degree.

Example:
I worked at a group home in Bozeman Montana that preferred a bachelors degree in psychology or some related field (they would hire people currently in school). They paid $11.00ish an hour, which at full time is about $22,000 gross income. Now if you went to a public 4 year school for only 4 years the cost is approximately $63,000 total. Making standard loan payments around $500 dollars a month. On that Salary, pre-taxes you bring home $1,906 a month. Making the student loan payments is more than a quarter of your monthly income. Smart budgeting says this is the maximum you should be paying for housing. Please tell me who can afford this?
The kicker was, that with the specialized training and the right personality type you could do that job, while a degree and more knowledge is always helpful it certainly wasn't necessary.

What I would like to see is the further utilization of 2 year degrees, I would also like to see employers start to take on the burden of training their workers and equipping them with the necessary knowledge instead of this whole ridiculous system where everyone is drowning in debt and still can't get a job. Not everyone needs to go to college or should force themselves to afford it. No where does it say that it is a right to go to college. Although currently it seems to be a requirement, we need to start questioning this system. It has to start with us at the bottom to change our way of thinking, so it can trickle up. That is the beauty of America, anyone can start a new way of thinking and I'm starting with me.