I think timing has a lot to do with it. I am 27 and didn't go to uni. I finished college at 18 and got a job in the career I wanted. With the economic situation a lot of my friends who got into careers and jobs when we were 16-19 got their feet in the door and gained experience in their field when perhaps finding a job was easier. A lot of people my age who went to univeristy finished their education when finding a job was hard due to the economy, so struggled to find work, especially in their respective field.
Also, possibly, there's an expectation to go to uni and go straight into a high paid job. We who started working at 16-18 worked our way up, gained experience so are on decent wages etc.
If I had gone to university i would have had to find a job or career when there were few out there, whilst having no real job experience.
I feel sorry for many of my school friends who struggled to find employment; many were very clever and worked very hard, they were just "unlucky" with the economy.
So im my personal opinion / circumstances, getting a degree would have made my quality of life a whole lot worse!
As a side note, when playing "The Game Of Life" every game where i ended up going to uni ended up a lot worse than when I didn't. Board games do not lie!