Why is it uncommon to graduate in four years at a four year college or university?

As I have entered my fourth year here at OU, I have noticed that I am a minority. Out of the students that I entered in with Fall 2005 I am one a few who are graduating May 2009. At OU it has come to my attention that the scholastic and financial structure of OU makes it so that without students taking firm control over their education the university has most of us on a 4.5-5 or even 6 year graduation track.

In this current economy and career environment students are looking to enter the job market as soon as possible in order to pay back the loans they have accumulated while being in college but other responsibilities that come with being in college get in the way. More than ever students have full time jobs, complicated or ever changing majors, or family responsibilities that slow their progression through college. On top of these issues universities are now asking students to take numerous general education classes outside of a student's major the lengthen their time and financial obligation to the university. When and why has going to college become a business that treats its students like helpless monopolized consumers?

As a college student I am no longer a person looking to better themselves. I am now a person who is obligated by career demands to go to college and then via the demands of the college I am obligated to be a slave to non-career related classes and varying fees. Being one of the lucky few who has escaped this black hole of confusion, frustration, and financial burden why is it my fellow scholastic brethren are bound to this cycle of strain and a false idea of 4 years and done?