For the record, I’m not American nor live in the US, but I have a 19-year-old son who started attending the University of Chicago this year, studying economics. Just the tuition itself is $70k. My husband and I are lucky enough to be able to afford it - I still believe it’s an outrageous amount of money to attend college.
Profit and greed. That’s it.
They charge that much because they can, and what are you gonna do about it? Not go to college? Good luck getting a job flipping burgers without a bachelors degree.