A college that sells you a degree that doesn't get you hired often gains you as a customer for the next degree, and an easier course costs less to run.
In plain words
A store that sells you something that doesn't work loses you as a customer. A college often gains one. When the bachelor's isn't enough, the answer on offer is a master's, sold by the same kind of institution. And a demanding course is expensive: someone has to read the papers and defend the C. So the asking gets smaller and the grades go up. No one in the building has to want that. The system simply never loses money on it.
Evidence and sources
- Master's degrees awarded each year rose from about 300,000 in 1981 to about 880,000 in 2022. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2022, Table 318.10.
- Graduate students were about one in five federal borrowers but took nearly half of federal loan dollars in 2021-22. Center for American Progress, "Graduate School Debt."
- Full-time students studied about 24 hours a week in 1961 and about 14 in 2003. Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks, Review of Economics and Statistics 93, no. 2 (2011).
- The "disengagement compact": I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone. George Kuh, Change 35, no. 2 (2003).
Questions this answers
- Why do so many jobs need a master's degree now?
- Why has college gotten easier?
- Why does tuition keep rising?
- Is graduate school worth the debt?
Where this falls short
Some graduate programs are worth every penny. The point is the incentive, not anyone's intent.
In the book
In Four Weeks, Not Four Years: Chapter 5.
Read the full answers
Related ideas
Cite this idea. Trenton Rich, "The repeat customer," in
Four Weeks, Not Four Years (2026), maxwellrich.com/idea-the-repeat-customer.html. Free to quote, copy and reuse with credit under
CC BY 4.0. The book itself is under normal copyright.