Why is it so expensive to go to college? Going to a four-year university and getting a bachelor’s degree is considered the most direct path to the middle class. At the same time, families in the middle class are forced to take extreme and desperate measures to pay for soaring school fees. It’s a broken system that’s taken its toll – we now have more college debt in this country than auto loan or credit card debt. So why is the barrier into the middle class so inaccessible? Caitlin Zaloom, author of "Indebted", tells the stories of families struggling with the financial pressures that come with trying to fund a college education. In this episode, she discusses the psychic toll of this fundamental paradox, both for those who go to college and those who don’t. RELATED READING: Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost by Caitlin Zaloom Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Chris Hayes YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Thick Descriptions with Tressie McMillan Cottom (Feb 6) Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.