Human experience and history is circular. In the old days, only the upper classes could send their second, third, n-th sons to uni to read books. Once the mid

Human experience and history is circular. In the old days, only the upper classes could send their second, third, n-th sons to uni to read books. Once the middle classes figured out they could hang with the upper classes just by paying (cheap) tuition, it sent all aspirational and up and coming middles to uni, to hang out with the uppers, who were promptly overrun outside the ivies. We're now slowly and painfully rotating back to the stage of only independently wealthy uppers will read books at uni as a career. Then maybe 2, 3, 4 generations in the future some bright spark in the middle classes will notice a lit degree lets a middle class kid social climb and hang out with the upper classes, the uni admins will notice they can literally charge the middle class kids anything they feel like charging just like medical, rotating the system back to where we are now.