Re: I haven't laughed so hard in a long time...
One of the driving causes, at least hypothesized by those that know FAR more than I, for the increased cost of higher education has been due to the ability of students to finance that education. Almost an unlimited amount.
Back in the Pleistocene period ... a semester's tuition (when I attended and matriculated) was three hunnert dollars per semester, at the University of Iowa (University of Illinois West) for in state tuition. Inflation adjust it and it's approximately one thousand four hundred dollars...
That was before BEOG grants .. So, a year's tuition was six hundred dollars .. it should be, inflation adjusted less than three thousand dollars ... YET, it is Eight Thousand One Hundred Four Dollars.
Moreover, the cost of private colleges is incredible. Case Western (not really a behemoth) is Twenty-Two Thousand, Seven Hundred Ninety-Six Dollars ... Or Forty-Five Thousand Five Hundred Ninety-Two Dollars per annum.
Remember, we're simply addressing tuition.