I definitely don't take your comment as a personal attack! And I actually think we don't disagree that much. A few quick points:

First: Yes, I absolutely agree that school-related stuff is the first option for "cutting corners" when one's first priority is paying rent and buying food. A number of people I know who have dropped out of undergrad did so precisely because they had to put their material needs first. (And in fact the majority of people I know who dropped out of undergrad did so for severe mental health reasons.) I suspect this is the case for a lot of people who drop out of school. Material needs come first. I was probably too quick to disregard this basic point in my initial comment.

Second: This discourse, frankly, is just overdetermined. A student choosing to cheat does so for many, many reasons, so trying to analyze why they do it is a bit of a hopeless endeavor to begin with. (I do not think this is a reason not to think about cheating.) I can think of friends in dire economic circumstances who were fine with cheating; I can think of friends in dire economic circumstances who weren't. I can think of friends from the 1% who were fine with cheating; I can think of friends from the 1% who weren't. One's material reality is undoubtedly a factor here, and maybe even the strongest one, but from my (very limited) experience, that's not the whole story. The "whole story" is just very long and messy.

I will say, to Dr. Musgrave's original point, AI opens up a whole new kind of cheating. (Actually, I might be mixing up Substack posts now that I go back and look but it's a good point nonetheless.) A student who chooses--for whatever reason--to have ChatGPT write their essay on the Cold War ended up not learning anything about the Cold War (and in the process that student didn't learn how to write, either). I guess all I have to say is just that it's depressing. I'm not under the illusion that students ten years ago were thrilled about writing essays, but all the same, it's depressing.