so it effects the economy at large in that they will most likely not take on any other large debt. Never buying homes or expensive cars, and forced to be quite frugal.
There should be a jubilee that wipes out student loan debt, the debt of underwater homeowners and those struggling with debt brought on because of medical bills. Education should be affordable and valued by society. Healthcare should be single payer. And the financial industry should be regulated so that there is no repeat of the sins that led up to this disaster.

We co-signed our kids' loans.
Neither one graduated, for medical reasons.
One is unemployed and the other is vastly underemployed.
We have been paying for several years.
At the moment we pay over $630 a month.
This is the money we would have saved for retirement.

We are stuck, with no way out.

your children went to school on someone else's retirement savings -- which will perhaps never be paid back to fund someone else's retirement. It was a cruel scheme.

And all because people did not want to just pay the taxes and be done with the pain and the lower standard of living in the first place.

This is what Republicans in power produces -- over and over -- economic crises.

I disagree.

I'd say it is all because people do not what to go to colleges within their means. My kid wanted to go to a private college but I was not willing to sign onto $20K/yr in loans.

So he went to the state college and is keeping his head above water without loans by working part time.

If so many people were not willing to pay what the private colleges charge, they would have to lower their rates..

But if your child has to live away from home to attend a state college, he or she might do better at a private school if the private college has a big endowment and gives lots of scholarships. That is the case in many private schools. It is always worthwhile to try to find out what kind of financial aid package your child can get. Just because a school is private does not mean that it will cost your child more money. That is where special talents and/or a high SAT score with good grades in high school and good recommendations make a difference.

I'm sure that is what Rick Santorum believes and is looking forward to.

Face it. The bankers stole the money that baby boomers saved for retirement. It's probably nesting away in offshore accounts where nobody can get to it.

They certainly did not invest it in anything that produces jobs or good quality products or retirement money.

They are cheats. They live very well on the money that other people slaved for and saved.

I don't mean to disparage all bankers, but instead of requiring people to pay taxes and using that tax money to invest in basic scientific studies that lead to new products, new industries, jobs, a healthy economy and other worthwhile things, the bankers spent our pension money on Ponzi schemes of all kinds, some more obvious than others.

Quite a lot of people have never gone to college and are making middle class incomes, yet they're considered somehow lesser or lacking for not having a bachelors or masters or something higher behind their name. I've seen trade school students make plenty of money doing things such as electrician work, auto mechanic work, machinist work, welding work, plumbing work, AC/heating system work, etc. We're not even talking about manufacturing jobs yet, and many of those jobs teach valuable mechanical and industrial know-how in an age where a nation can either stand or fall with or without that knowledge.

Many of these kinds of jobs are real hands-on and greasy, but they're the kinds of jobs that built the middle class in America in the first place, and it was this industrial know-how that made America into a world power, and without that industrial capacity, it may not have been able to out-produce the Axis Powers in the last world war.

In an ideal system, university-level education is, first and foremost, challenging to achieve because of very tough entrance qualifications and exams, and secondly, there should be a strong, high-quality network of trade schools that students who fail to qualify for university can enroll in as an alternative. In either case, the economy sees added benefit in a more knowledgeable workforce. For students who actually do pass the tough qualifications for university, their tuition should be mostly or entirely subsidized by the taxpayers as a form of economic investment in the future; the same for trade school students.

At any rate, the US lacks a coherent strategy in this area. It's simply try to push students through college and throw student loans at them with interest, and I think colleges in the US have low entrance qualifications in general. They should be way higher, and trade schools in the US should be beefed up as well far beyond what they currently are.

If education spending had the same priority as defense spending, the United States still would be an industrial giant that makes most or all of what it consumes, and its students would score on par or surpassing students in other industrialized nations. Nope. We're lagging behind, in pretty much every area except war capabilities and war spending.

and they bought their education with cheap dollars
Yes they have debt and that is wrong
perhaps someday they will figure out
that the government should help pay for their education
verses going to WAR

Yes they won't be buying any houses or big cars
but someday those educated kids are going to figure out
how they were screwed


I think the Occupy movement is all about these young VERY EDUCATED kids

VERY EDUCATED Debt slaves are the worst kind

that it's a small percentage of people compared to the mortgage crisis and that it's still worth it because you make a million dollars more over your lifetime.

I don't buy either of those, especially now with the downward pressure on wages and that this type of debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy. This is their house, or at least car, that they can't buy. So it will also affect anyone who wants to sell their house, and car dealers.

When Republicans cry about putting government financial issues on future generations, why do they not include this? That's exactly what the states did...

What you will see is Brain Drain

I know a kid graduate prestigious school
who just up and left America

and is very happy working in another country with his education he got in America

he has a better job and a better life

Does American student's debt carry over into the next country?
What do they do to you when you don't pay it back?

the threat is garnish your wages
but what if he give up your citizenship and take another country's
and work there

Oh think of all the SMART Possibilities!

Oh ya America has something to worry about

massive exodus of educated children to other countries

especially as the American way of life deteriorates
one thing overseas that is valued highly
is America's education

One of my best friends moved to Africa to get away from his student debt (med school). He works largely with non-profit orgs. and doesn't earn a lot, but he lives a very comfortable and happy life.

What country did he move to?

such as full sail, kaplan, art institute of (insert city), etc. that appear to have very aggressive efforts at getting low income students enrolled without regards to likelihood of graduation or job after graduation. Who just want the easy money of student loans.

I am sure that this is just a part of the whole picture, but what I have learned of the for-profit higher ed industry in the past several years has turned my stomach on multiple dimensions.

20+ years ago my favorite paper was the Washington Post. Had grown tepid on it, and after its affiliation with Kaplan (for profit U.s) have pretty much stopped reading even linked stories to the paper.

It was one of those administrative asst, medical assitant type schools. They made it sound so easy and that the grants and such would cover most of it. I was young and stupid and desperate for the means to support my kids. Now they just take all my income tax refunds which pretty much pays the interest and it will never go away. Maybe someday if I get married and have two incomes I'll be able to pay it off. To be honest I just don't think about it anymore. I file my taxes because I have to and the company gets both my returns.

I can't imagine what kids with huge student loans will do. My son is having his education paid for by the air national guard and my youngest is joining the Army this summer after graduation and plans to go to college during and after his enlistment.

I am hoping for neither to have any loans.

Comparing it to the mortgage implosion is beyond stupid. There is no inherent illusionary value to an education. An educated populace makes it LESS likely there will be diasaterous economic conditions, and the decisions that drive it toward that.

The mortage debacle was based upon an illusory inflation of values that drove prices beyond sustainable degree. This caused deceptive practices to be engaged to persuade UNDEREDUCATED people to overextend, and then get trapped by predatory banking behaviors. Those questionable practices were then backed by FRAUDULENTLY rated mortgage bundles that created huge levels of risk in what were supposed to be fairly safe investments.

The student loan situation described in the article has no parallels at all with that situation. Seems like either fear mongering or another attempt to persuade people to stay away from college.
GAC

As bad as the mortgage mess was, the world wide impact was all the CDS that kicked in as these bundled mortgages failed. It was a multiplier, and by some account, made the problem around 30 times larger.

No such effect here. And if the colleges suddenly have a huge decline in attendance, it won't have the same economic effect that the collapse of the housing industry did.

which will most dramatically impact the same young people straddled with student debt and insanely high unemployment rates. A hard rain is going to fall.

If we aren't forced to rebuild the economy from scratch, we will descend into a new feudal civilization, and it'll be one that humanity will never escape from.