Is there even a point to a college degree if there's no work available?

I’m a college student currently doing a lot of research on what kind of career I’m interested in and what kind of opportunities I’ll have once I graduate.

I know the economy isn’t good right now; that’s pretty obvious. I’ve been lucky enough that every job I’ve had I was able to find fairly quickly up to this point. I’ve never went without a job when I needed one, never been on unemployment, etc. However, I am surrounded by people who simply can’t find work and go months and months living off of unemployment checks. I also hear of people with all sorts of degrees working in unrelated fields, not being paid for the education they received, and basically being very unhappy. Furthermore, I constantly hear about people who once made a lot of money being laid off or demoted to the point where their entire way of living has been changed. I’ve also seen people who weren’t nearly as affected by the economic decline.

To be more specific to my situation, I’m talking about he people who tell me, “It’s going to be hard to find a job in that field.” It seems as if you aren’t in the medical field (which, let’s face it, not everyone is cut out for), you’re damned to a future of struggling to find work and support yourself.

So, what’s the point? If I’m going to end up being a bank teller for the rest of my life (my job now), why waste my money on school? Are job opportunities hard to come by for average people with average educations and average work experience, or is it that way even for intelligent people with well-rounded educations and solid work experience?

Is it an issue of drive, motivation, and effort of an individual or is it really that there are no well paying jobs for educated people right now?

It’s kind of hard not to get discouraged when all I hear is how much I’ll be struggling after putting all of this money and effort into preparing myself for the working world.

Any thoughts?