Slate discovers the blindingly obvious:

Student Loans Might Be Driving Up the Cost of College.

In short, it turns out that when the Federal government blindly subsidizes something, that something becomes more expensive. Why? Because those who are getting paid to provide that something now are virtually assured of getting paid whatever they ask for, because the FedGuv will pay it.

Note that there is no good reason to assume that this applies to college, but not, say, to health care.

schools raised tuition by 55 cents for each $1 increase in Pell grants their undergraduates received, and by 60 to 70 cents for each extra dollar of subsidized student loans.

No kiddin’.

Lemme put it this way: I normally charge $4 for a copy of US Bomber Projects, and sell to – if I’m lucky – about 100 people. But if the FedGuv came along and told a whole bunch of folks  – say, a thousand – that they’d subsidize ’em to the tune of $3 to buy a copy of USBP, chances are *real* good that I’d sell the better part of three or four hundred. Good for me! Now, if society told those 1,000 people that if they wanted to get ahead if life they’d better buy USBP, chances are good I’d sell more than 950 of ’em. Yay! But once *I* realized that those people are bound and determined to buy USBP, *and* that they will definitely have the funds to do so… you can bet your ass the next time you check out the webpage, the average issue of USBP will be $5. And then $6. And then $8.

And those 950 buyers will still buy at $8 an issue, and will *demand* that the government give them $7 to do so. So who’d be unhappy here? Not me. Not the subsidized buyers; they get the product they want and don’t care about the cost. Not the government, because who cares who much things cost? You know who cares? Two people. The taxpayers who have to fund this disaster. And anyone who wants to buy a copy of USBP and who *isn’t* being funded by the government.