Is an employer going to hire a person with a degree over a person without one?  Yes.  Will that degree actually apply to the job?  Probably not, unless your in a STEM field or doing something that is actually related to your degree.  The reason people need degrees today isn't because they actually apply to the job they will end up with, but because everyone has been conditioned to believe a degree is necessary so it's expected now.  Let me ask you something, if you spend $40-$50k getting a degree to start making $30k a year vs. $25k a year without, and it takes you 4-5 years to get that degree (time where you really aren't making much if any money at all), are you really that much better off?  

I attend the U of A  and tuition for an instate undergrad is over $5k per semester for a full time student.  Most students will require more than 8 semesters to graduate.  A lot of those students are from out of state (CA and other surrounding states) and pay over $10k per semester (That's $80-$100k for a bachelor's degree at a state school!).  I'm studying engineering and I will be happy if I can land a job in Tucson after graduation with a starting salary of $45k a year.  There are two main reasons I decided to go back to school:  for one, Uncle Sugar decided he still owned me a little something for my time served, and two, I like engineering and would probably never be able to land a job doing it without an accredited certification, not to mention learning stuff like calculus, mechanics, and circuits on one's own would be extremely difficult.  Most students don't have the aptitude or desire to pursue a STEM degree so they waste their (or their parent's) money on some bullshit humanities degree.  If they have any wits about them at all they will at least go for something business related.  But even then, they are looking at being middle management and averaging maybe $40-$60k a year and most of that will be coming later in their careers (closer to retirement age).

When you factor in the actual costs and the opportunity costs (money not made while attending school), Reservist is right, most people probably shouldn't go to college.  College should be a place for people to learn technical skills.  Not a place for students to explore culture or their inner selves.  The reason a degree cost so damn much today is because our society has needlessly created this fallacy that everyone should be college educated.  I don't need or want the person changing the oil on my truck to have a degree.  However, I do want the guy that designed the truck to have one.  A far better system than everyone going to college would be 1) tougher standards in high school and 2) apprenticeship/internships straight out of high school.  Of course, that would turn off the taps of all the government money flowing into academia and we can't have that!

Now, don't even get me started on all the bullshit classes I have to take that have nothing to do with engineering and will contribute nothing to my interests or future career!