On Feb. 22, 2016, a commentary titled “Dear Bernie Sanders, Sorry I’m the Problem With America” was posted to Fortune magazine from a man named Rob May. In the commentary, May, CEO and co-founder of Talla, bemoans the criticism Sanders has leveled at corporate America and proposes his solution to the student debt crisis. Simply stop taking trips to Southeast Asia and work harder, lazy peons! Rob May needs to take WRIT 150.

Why do so many tech CEOs lack basic writing skills? From Mark Zuckerberg’s ill-fated defense of Free Basics in India (but think of Ganesh!) to Rob May’s completely self-serving contribution to the discussion about college education in the United States, tech CEOs think it’s their obligation to lecture us tech illiterate folk. As Zuck’s Free Basics fell short of the finish line in India due to the passionate rebuttals of several Indian intellectuals, I now feel it is my humble responsibility to point out several obvious flaws in May’s, let me reiterate, completely self-serving contribution.

I am labeling May’s contribution as self-serving because he spends more than half the article discussing his own business ventures. Could this perhaps be an attempt at viral marketing? Gosh, I sure hope not! His background is relevant to his overarching point that hard work is the only currency one can rely on these days, yes, but to claim that laziness is the issue is a tired conservative narrative that flies in the face of hard facts. That’s right, facts, not straw-man arguments lamenting the popularity of Vietnam and Cambodia as vacation destinations. (Quick aside: How does a vacation to Southeast Asia, one of the cheapest regions to travel to, translate into average student debt approaching $30,000?)

So let’s look at facts, like the fact that my school -- University of Southern California -- has raised tuition by $9,280 since the 2011-2012 school year. I can already hear the indignant cries: “you are cherry-picking! USC is a private university and it’s your own damn fault for choosing to go to a school that would raise tuition by that much!” Well, sure, I could waste words arguing that, but then let’s look at this graph.

This is in-state tuition for public institutions. The rate it has increased at is higher than the rate of inflation, so we don’t even need real dollar values to realize how absurd this is. Note that it does not even run up to present, so it would be safe to assume that the average figure is even higher than it was. Now, tuition is just one side of the steaming pile of manure that is higher education in the United States. What about educational supplies, like textbooks?

See, Bernie Sanders isn’t so much taking issue with your success, Mr. May, so much as he is taking issue with vulture capitalists that see in the combination of overly easy credit and hugely inelastic goods an opportunity to make an exorbitant profit. Vulture capitalists, like textbook corporations that have raised the price of a required good by 575 percent (325 increase compared to the CPI) since before the 1980s. I am required to purchase these books or risk maximizing my potential grades.

So, Mr. May, the higher education crisis is not, as much as you might like to think, a result of the seductive charms of Southeast Asia. I wish it were that simple.