The cost of education TODAY is essentially zero. There's a huge amount of knowledge in the public domain, and libraries aren't expensive, and neither are computers, and then there's also the internet.<p>But you don't go to college for the education. Well it's definitely part of it, but a small mart. The big parts in no particular order are:<p>1. Social signaling that are you at least resemble a functioning adult. A college degree is a kind of societal hazing showing you're kind of OK.<p>2. Making connections with other people, other people who are very likely to be successful because of their education or their family's money or what ever, it's nice to have them in your social circle.<p>3. 3-5 or how ever many years of a fun and/or somewhat challenging experience that's shared with many other young single people all living and partying in close proximity. It's almost like a cruise with homework. Oh guess what they have those, you can actually take that as real college class.<p>How much would a 4 year vacation like that cost you?
What if a large section of society had taken that vacation and not shared the experience made you somewhat of an outsider. How much would the travel agency be able to charge you then?<p>Tuition costs make more sense now?