[indubitable]

I think the infinite access to loans is destroying any connection between market pricing and desirability. People at the age of 17 or 18 when they're going into college tend to have minimal to no knowledge of the workforce, and tend to be completely unrealistic about their own probable outcomes. More than 50% [1] of Americans under the age of 30 expect to become what they consider "rich." That was from 2003, but it was repeated in 2010 and yielded near identical results. [2] What does an extra $20k/year in debt matter if you're going to be a millionaire in a decade anyhow? When people's views of the value of something is completely out of touch with reality, they are rarely going to be incentivized to make logical decisions.

This feature also makes the entire for profit education industry quite predatory. I realize public institutions are ostensibly not for profit. At the same time, when you have higher executives taking salaries in the millions of dollars, and layer upon layer of redundant administrators with comparably bloated salaries, that they then regularly adjust upwards as "their revenue" increases, that belies the intuition of 'not for profit.' So forgive my colloquial nature.

[1] - http://news.gallup.com/poll/7981/Half-Young-People-Expect-St...

[2] - http://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/do-you-think-you-wil...