College financial aid is a sham based on what colleges think families will pay

That website is wrong. Price discrimination is perfectly legal unless it's done on the basis of a protected class (race, gender, etc.) or is deemed to be anticompetitive. But those are often the exception. Forms of price discrimination (bulk discounts, membership discounts, etc.) are exceedingly common and perfectly fine, as is price discrimination based on purchaser income or interest, its just often difficult to figure that out, but airlines and hotels commonly raise prices when you revisit their sites, under the assumption that you're more interested the second time around.

Better yet, get government financing back into state university systems, at least until the ratio of annual tuition to minimum hourly wage is back to what it was in 1980. Then see whether the kid who got into Cal Berkeley really needs to go to Stanford.

It is what happens when you have an unlimited demand more for services and cost controls.

You can provide a world-class education in a bungalow or you can provide it in a marble Hall with a plethora of ancillary services and an army of Administrators to support them.

If the consumers don't fit the bill, they will always opt for a more expensive service.

Add and lies about return on investment and a healthy dose of fear of missing out, even those who have to take on debt to buy the service we'll go along with it

Optimized for capitalism?

Universities are propped up by Government-backed loans and special rules that forbid people from discharging those loans through bankruptcy. The colleges and universities are guaranteed to get their money no matter what.

It's about as anti-capitalist as you can get.