I mean, there are other substantial factors that make this not an ideal free market: - The time to set up certain kinds of facilities, eg, good physics labs or

I mean, there are other substantial factors that make this not an ideal free market: - The time to set up certain kinds of facilities, eg, good physics labs or mechanical engineering labs, can be on the order of several years to a decade. - There is a limited ability to scale up, as it relies on its own out put to keep functional (eg, professors and TAs). - Non-responsive hiring managers whose cultural sense was normalized before many of these changes impacted colleges (eg, >20 years ago) haven't adjusted their hiring practices, and place an artificially high reward on college degrees.