Why is college so expensive today?

When I went to college in the mid-twentieth century, there were still many of we students who were not there primarily to get a job. Sure, we hoped we would be employed after the four years, but we were there primarily to learn about life, the accomplishments and difficulties of those who had gone before, the beauty and sadness of the arts, the mysteries of science, the ways of business, etc. While tuition was expensive, several of us in my lower middle class inner city neighborhood could have scraped together the funds needed without signing on for years and years of debt.

Now, of course, that is all history. The cost of a college education is astronomical today, as annual tuition has increased by more than 1,200 percent over the last 30 years. This is far more than such items as food, housing, cars, gasoline, TVs, etc.. Tuition has increased at a rate double that of exorbitant medical costs. Few investments have kept pace.

I agree with Thomas Frank that the primary reason for the astronomical increase is that colleges now think of themselves as businesses whose role is to become market leaders and make good money for those running the institutions. Colleges have brainwashed students that they go to college to make money in the long run; of course, to do so the students have to invest in the short term.