The value of the degree is not based upon what you had to do, learn or pay to get it, which partly explains why the quality of that education is often so poor.
Beyond being a 4 year extension of adolescence, the value of a 4-year degree is at best loosely coupled to the actual education it once represented. Instead, its worth is as an entry ticket to corporate carpet country level jobs.
The price of admission to the corporate world is a 4-year degree. Without that piece of paper, assuming that you are hired, you won't ever be more than an hourly employee in the corporate world regardless of how good you are.
That's why a degree costs so much.
And why we're in the toilet and so many "kids" can't figure out how make it in the world.