I'm happy for you having this discussion with yourself. But Chris's posts were comparing education access in decades past to today. I'm happy that you agree with us that today's fcoked up. Carry on ... with whatever the hell you're ranting about.
You have a BA? Again, I'd get your money back. Let's walk through this slower. Let's see if you can get a simple point, it's becoming a challenge now.
Yes, decades ago, relative to wages college was cheaper. I worked part time and paid for most of my degree, and I went to the University of Maryland, which is right on the border of DC, not exactly Podunk college, and I did it by working summers, nights, winter break, spring break, etc.
Since then, government took over funding educations and pumps subsidized loans into the system. You apply, you get it. There is no determination of where you are going and what you are studying and if you are likely to even be able to pay it back if you want to. People owe $100K and have a degree in sociology which pays maybe $30K a year, less than my first job in ... 1988.
The cost of education has while government pumped in endless subsidized loans all that time continued to spiral up far out pacing inflation. Those decades the government kept pumping in cheap money people kept spending and spending.
Now it's a lot harder to pay significant portions of your degree only working part time because relative to income college costs more, you can earn a lower percent.
Seriously, you aren't seeing the relation between government cheap money and the difference between the 80s and today? A BA can't follow simple numerical reasoning?