> To my eye, they talk about money, they frame the question about money

When 18 year old kids with no income are taking out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans to pay for an education, the question of whether that education will allow them to make enough money to pay it back is pretty important.

> language, cultures, arts, shared values, shared concerns, common intellectual experience.

You can get all of this stuff without going without going to college and spending ridiculous amounts of money. Go to museums, watch YouTube, visit relevant internet forums, buy used college textbooks, etc. I taught myself Spanish this way. It was something I wanted to do, but I knew it probably wouldn't make me any money of it (I haven't), so I'm glad I did that rather than spending $100k+ to learn it in college.