US university enrolment declines

Economist John Quiggin, liberal academic that he is, has a typically liberal explanation for declining US university enrolments:

Although there are many possibilities, it seems likely that this is a second-round effect of growing income inequality. The huge increase in income inequality over the past thirty years has been cushioned, for the poor, by increased access to credit, which has meant a much smaller increase in consumption inequality. But almost certainly that has excluded lots of families from saving for university education for their childrens. At the same time, the increased wealth of the top two quintiles has allowed, and encouraged, universities to raise tuition charges and offer more lavish facilities.

I'd argue that people have realised universities aren't really institutions of higher learning, they're liberal inculation facilities. Great, if you plan to be an academic, but useless if you plan to work in the real world.