Class of 2013,

No one else is going to tell you this, so I might as well.

You sit here today, $30,000 or $40,000 in debt, as the latest victims of what may well be the biggest conspiracy in U.S. history. It is a conspiracy so big and powerful that Dan Brown wont even touch it. Its a conspiracy so insidious that you will rarely hear its name.

Move over, Illuminati. Stand down, Wall Street. Area 51? Pah. Its nothing.

The biggest conspiracy of all? The College-Industrial Complex.

Consider this: You have just paid about three times as much for your degree as did someone graduating 30 years ago. Thats in constant dollars – in other words, after accounting for inflation. There is no evidence that you have received a degree three times as good. Some would wonder if you have received a degree even one times as good.

According to the College Board, in 1983 a typical private American university managed to provide a bachelors degree education to young people just like you for $11,000 a year in tuition and fees. Thats in 2012 dollars.

Instead, those of you at private colleges paid this year an average of $29,000.

And back then a public college charged just $2,200 a year in tuition and fees – in todays dollars. You could get a full four-year degree for $8,800. Today that will get you one years tuition, or $8,700.

Notice, please, we are not even counting the cost of all the extras, like room and board. This is just the cost of the teaching.

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Dear Class of ‘13: You’ve been scammed