Economics professor Steven Horwitz writes here about the unsustainable growth in the higher education industry and burgeoning student debt in this essay.
People often say that the US is so prosperous because we “invest so much in higher education” but the truth is the other way around. It’s only because the US is prosperous that we can afford such a costly and ineffective higher ed system. Government subsidies and deceptive rhetoric about the supposed benefits of going to college have created a bubble or boom similar to the housing bubble.