When the government guaranteed student loans, it removed the risk for colleges. This allowed them to hike tuition prices unchecked, knowing students had access to funding. The resulting flood of graduates has also made a college degree less of a differentiator in the job market.

Runaway costs in education, housing, and healthcare stem from government intervention. When the government promises to provide a service (e.g., student loans), it becomes a massive "buy-only" force with no price sensitivity, eliminating natural market forces and causing costs to balloon.

Elite universities use "early decision" to tempt applicants with higher admission rates. The catch: accepted students must attend, losing all power to negotiate financial aid. This lack of competition allows universities to inflate prices unchecked, creating artificial scarcity that benefits the institution.

Despite their non-profit status, university administrators and faculty act as capitalists focused on increasing compensation while reducing accountability. They leverage artificial scarcity, cheap government-backed credit, and accreditation barriers to raise tuition faster than inflation, effectively exploiting the middle class under a veneer of nobility.

Widespread cancellation of medical debt, while well-intentioned, may remove consumer pressure on providers. If patients don't need to shop around or question prices because they anticipate forgiveness, it eliminates a key market force needed to control escalating costs.

Top universities operate like luxury brands such as LVMH by creating artificial scarcity, rejecting the vast majority of applicants. This strategy boosts their perceived value, allowing them to charge exorbitant tuition at incredibly high margins, effectively transferring wealth from middle-class families to university endowments, faculty, and administrators.

To fix the student debt crisis, universities should be financially on the hook for the first portion of any loan default (e.g., $20,000). This "first loss" position would compel them to underwrite the economic viability of their own degrees, creating a powerful market check against pushing students into overpriced and low-value programs.

Blanket student loan forgiveness fails to address the root cause: skyrocketing tuition fueled by easy credit. A better solution is to force universities to have skin in the game by making them financially liable for a percentage of defaulted loans, which would incentivize responsible lending and curb price inflation.

Debating AI's impact on education is a distraction from the real crisis: the business model of elite universities. By creating artificial scarcity and raising tuition faster than inflation, they have become a "corrupt cartel." The solution isn't technological, but simple: admit significantly more students.