Well I don't know about other places, but for us we have a daycare on campus that's affordable and available for anyone in the community. We have family housing

Well I don't know about other places, but for us we have a daycare on campus that's affordable and available for anyone in the community. We have family housing that is multigenerational (many international students bring their parents with them and they live together). We have plenty of older community members of course - many of our teaching faculty are retirees, and emeritus professors are some of the oldest people on the planet! Scaling is a problem though, that's for sure, although many colleges are in fact towns outright (like Penn State). However, there's a big incentive for colleges to turn into hedge funds/real-estate holding firms which works against the educational mission of universities IMO. As for overpriced... I mean, you get what you pay for. I don't think it's overpriced because I've tried the alternative, and I've found it lacking. Although I see several avenues to cut costs while keeping service levels. But if you think college campuses are just for the students, you're missing half the picture!