The downside, of course, is that people who are from poor families never get to attend college. This perpetuates poverty in certain families/neighborhoods/regions and discourages diversity of opinion in universities and the workplace.
This is the pointlessness of the article. Like asking what percentage of heart attack victims know how much their bill will add up to. Oh you say without that treatment I'll die, well then I guess I like that treatment. How much does it cost, well, lets start with how much do you have?
But we aren't doing poor kids any favor putting them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for college.
Also, we have community colleges and public colleges. Tuition in my state for community college and a public school is under 30k for a full degree if you mix community and public 4 year. Motivated students could do part time school over 6-7 years while working full time.