If anything, the fact that tuition rates have skyrocketed, and people continue to pay any price using loans they later struggle to pay back, is a textbook example of how separating what people have to pay from what something actually costs is a terrible idea.

Why shouldn’t it be subject to the laws of supply and demand? If my passion is Russian Literature, you’re saying that someone (who?) must create a demand for that so that I can make a living pursing my passion?

I literally know a person with a Russian Literature degree who thinks that. That's exactly what some people say.

I know. The story I referenced about Humans of New York was exactly that: “I have a degree in theatre and I can’t make above minimum wage. That’s unfair, theatre is important and I should be able to make a living doing that.” I know people personally who are like this, and when you engage with them and say “Have you thought about getting a job doing X at company Y” or “There’s a huge demand for nurses, have you thought about getting a nursing degree”, the response is something like “I don’t want to do that, I wouldn’t enjoy it.” There’s some sort of fundamental disconnect here between how they think the world works and how it actually does.

At the end of the day, free college is not going to solve the problem, and I firmly believe it would make matters worse. With no skin in the game, people will get all manner of ridiculous degrees, and the universities will be more than happy to give them to them.