I suggest you look at the ways universities ACTUALLY spend money. Yes, many, including my alma mater, spent lavishly on fancy new buildings. No question about that. But the primary growth of expenses at universities has been the huge growth in administrative positions. Administrators want to get paid more, and what better way to do that than to pretend you need more people working UNDER you. There is zero reason why every other industry in the world has reduced their administrative overhead with technology except higher education. And you will never see a bigger group of useless fucks than university administrators. Not unlike the Wall Street "bro" douchebags, they are just talkers with no real skills, inserting themselves into a corrupt system to collect a chunk of the dollars flowing past them.

Yes, of course, when people are at the door with a blank check, it's easy to waste too. I'm not saying these schools spend all their money wisely, I'm saying that people could choose to go to cheaper colleges but often don't, and choose schools that appear to have more resources.