[kardashev]

Actually (counter-intuitively) college would be more affordable for middle class and the poor in a situation where there are no loans. Consider, there are only a tiny amount of rich people and there are many, many colleges. If there were no loans, colleges would have to make themselves affordable enough to get any enrollment. A large portion of tuition increases have come from bloated administration and useless degree programs. Those would disappear if people weren't given gobs of money in loans.

[jonlucc]

Sure the price will come way down, but it will still be out of reach for the people who are most likely to perpetuate poverty in their families. Surely the price would not drop below the annual difference in median incomes between those with and without degrees. If I'm going to make an extra $5k a year just for having the degree, I can get my family to cover it. Poor people can't really afford that. In fact, I'd wager there is no price at which it is viable to run a university that doesn't make it unattainable for people with parents living paycheck-to-paycheck.