Trying to explain statistics to someone who only believes empirical evidence (and selective empirical evidence at that) is pointless. But let's give it a try anyway.
There are some people who will make $X regardless of whether they get a university degree or not. (Group A)
There are some people who will make more money if they don't get a university degree vs getting a university degree. (Group B)
Then there are some people who will make more money if they get a university degree vs not getting a university degree. (Group C)
Group C outnumbers Groups A + Group B by a very, very large margin. As in, quadruple or more.
Does that mean a university degree is for everyone? Of course not. But it's a pretty good bet. It's the safe bet, which is why so many parents push it. Most parents are less interested in their child becoming the next Bill Gates (a low chance event anyway) than they are worried their child will be a McDonald's fry cook at 30, living in their basement (a pretty high probability event, compared to becoming the next Bill Gates).
Now, are university educations (in the US, at least) ridiculously overpriced? Totally. Federally guaranteed student loans have pushed the cost of a university education up at an unprecedented rate, on the assumption that pushing kids who may not be suited for university life into universities will somehow mak3 things all better. You're still getting a pretty good product that's worth the money if you know what you're doing, but if you're getting an underwater basketweaving degree you're just throwing money away. I know Theatre majors who are working kiosks at 3rd rate dirt malls in rural towns of less than 5,000 people. For that person, their university degree was money thrown away.
On the other hand, I know people who earned degrees in as "wild shot" of fields as Theatre who are working great jobs in their chosen fields. But the odds are generally against you. msog's attitude, from my scan on this thread, seems to be the equivalent of me saying "Well, my friend has a job as the sound engineer for TV Show A so that music technology degree is a GREAT degree!", which is crazy talk.
If you can afford it, and if you have a young person in your life, encourage them to spend some time after high school doing something else. A few years at a real job, or even a stint in the military, can teach them things that university will never teach them. Then send them off to college and they'll be more prepared for it and much less daunted by the "workload", which often seems so difficult before you see what real work is like.