I know the standard talking point is that easily available student loans is the only cause of tuition increasing so much over the years. But this ignores the massive drop of state funding that used to go to most colleges, and (IMO even more important) demand vs supply. It used to be that college was one of several valid options after high school, but now everyone is supposed to go to college and there is a lot of societal pressure to go, without regard to what a person wants to do with their life. This allows colleges to keep increasing tuition almost without limit, because you _have_ to get a degree so cost doesn't stop people from going.

I'm just curious, before federal loans, were private lenders willing to fund anybody, or only degrees they found lucrative?

Or was the tuition so low it didn't matter? (E.g., somebody who gets a psychology degree and winds up making $40k/year doing data entry still can afford to pay the relatively small amount)?