Outstanding recap!

I read an article more than a decade ago in a popular magazine that talked all about the rising costs of higher education and how it wasn't linked to anything but their own skyrocketing prices - except maybe government assistance.

If people started realizing the value of trades - for which a college degree is pretty useless - and the prevalence of good jobs in this sector I think we could get people out of this mentality that a college degree is necessary. I think the thing which pains me the most is that the vast majority of an undergraduate education is what you should have learned in high school - basic "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic".

I can tell you how it compares to 1975 from personal experience and 2000 according to online documents.
In '75 a resident student at a well respected state engineering university had a matriculation bill of about $144 per quarter and it took 12 quarters to get a bachelors degree in engineering. Total matriculation for a bachelors degree was roughly $1,728. A non-resident student paid an additional tuition cost of about $3,000 (because the resident student's parents had paid taxes in the state for years that were used to support the university.)
The dormitory costs in '75 were about $35 per month per student in a 2-person room located downtown in a major metropolitan city. Meals were about $200 per quarter. (Annual room and board total was about $915.) Books cost about $60 per quarter ($180/year.) Other mandatory fees (student activity,student health, etc) were about $200/year.
The resident matriculation increased over the next 2 decades (1995) to $7,596 (for 4 year degree), while the non-resident tuition increased to about $18,360 (for a 4-year degree.)
By the year 2000, resident matriculation was up to about $11,584 and non-resident tuition was up to about $34,752 additional for a 4 year degree.
In 2000, the annual room and board is estimated at $5,090 and books at about $500/year. Other mandatory fees were $694/year.
For 2018, resident matriculation is $49,672 and non-resident tuition is an extra $82,384 for a 4-year degree. (This includes other mandatory fees of $2,410/year)
Room and board in 2018 is $11,492/year.
Books are estimated at $800/year for 2018.

This is for a state public university, not one of the elite institutions that have additional costs for the relationship "pull" received by rubbing elbows with sons and daughters of thieving looters.

Recap
1975 resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $6,908
1975 non-resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $6,908+12,000 = $18,908
2000 resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $36,720
2000 non-resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $36,720+$34,752=$71,472
2018 resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $98,840
2018 non-resident 4-year degree tuition, books, room and board $98,840 + $82,384 = $181,224
This university claims to be rated as the 4th best "value" in the US in 2018 according to an independent study.

Good stuff!
I've seen much of that in print and in practice but it is good to get a compilation.
I liked the quotes using economic analysis, the field of economics has much to offer when used honestly.

Now, those celebrities caught offering bribes, the same ones no doubt, who indulge in virtue signalling by telling the deplorables to cut carbon emissions.

This will buried after a while.

Some of the players will be exposed but the scheme will stay.