Sunk cost fallacy, nobody will label themselves a rube that has been defrauded. From everyones own perspective every choice they have made was correct and good. Much easier to get handwavy and make a number of claims that you can't disprove than deal with that cognative disodance. After all they are educated, so that must mean they are too smart to fall for such an obvious trap.

You would fall into the "of the world" camp. There are others, a relative minority but prevalent everywhere, that don't want to be a part of this, nor want their children involved. You will likely never interact with them, and their thoughts and feelings will never reach you -- but that doesn't mean their worlds are inane (or rather, more inane than any other).

The deterioration of quality within the "elite universities" is self-evident if one goes by more nuanced measure than "how high up the industrial and political ladder" its graduates reach. What the contrary is, is a matter of values that I will not be elaborating upon (this conversation has become tiring).

Thank you for your comments. I don't interact with "not of the world" folks much but am always glad when it happens.

Oh, I know people who share your views, including a few relatives. I'm just not into cults.

Either you've taught your kids cakes that will stand up in the face of scrutiny and alternative belief systems, or you're peddling junk and hoping that with enough brainwashing and avoiding reality, they won't figure it out.

s/Cakes/values/

also look at how big endowments of the "big" private schools is. It's almost obscene that they are just letting all that wealth sit rather than doing something with it.