If you can afford college, it is absolutely worth it to go to college. For a variety of reasons, ROI not top of the list.
If it may be hard for you to afford college, then it's a better question to ask.
Making college less necessary starts with improving primary and secondary education.
Are you saying Americans don’t take stats, calc, or English lit in high school?
This is complicated by the fact that the mission of the university and of education in general has become muddled. There is also an intellectual crisis that plagues academe (like the silos separating the liberal arts and the sciences). The two intertwined and at times competing missions are that of educating the person and that of career preparation. Arguably, the latter is where the bulk of energy is going; I don't know where you can locate the former, in general.
So, in that light, you have to ask: are universities the best option for everyone...
a) from the perspective of job training?
b) from the perspective of education?
Not everyone is called to go to university.