The way I see it, America will eventually have the choice between forgiving student debt or facing the massive destabilization caused by an entire generation being unable to build any wealth.
By destabilization I mean that the millennial generation will eventually become aware of the fact that they will be enslaved by their student debt for most of, if not their entire lives.
Many in this generation still had parents that were able to save and contribute financially to their children’s college education, but that’s also going to be a thing of the past when everyone has their own debt burden to carry well into adulthood – meaning the problem will become unimaginably worse for the next generation.
Once people realize this, you’ve got a social powder keg unheard of since the social question poised by the industrial revolution.
The entire student loan system is little more than a scheme meant to extract every last bit of present and future wealth from society’s youngest members, and the longer it continues, the uglier its inevitable end is going to be.
and so many millennials are choosing not to get married, or have kids because of all the debts they owe.
its having much more severe consequences than people want to admit.
PLUS!
One of the main critiques of socialism is that without the incentive to excel, no one will do their best job, and the system will fall apart as unmotivated people do worse and worse work. If you get the same housing and food and medical care whether you do good work or crappy work, why try?
But end-stage capitalism has the same problem, only without the guarantee of food and shelter. If you’re going to drown in debt your entire life and never be able to afford a house regardless of whether you work hard or don’t work hard, what incentive is there to slave away for your corporate masters?
We’re currently coasting on societally-imprinted work ethic and the myth that with hard work comes success. But as time goes by and it becomes more and more obvious that your hard work only enriches the oligarchs and you’ll never see a dime of that? Well before the powderkeg ignites we’ll see productivity drop through the basement because no one believes that being productive is worth the effort.
“If you’re going to drown in debt your entire life and never be able to
afford a house regardless of whether you work hard or don’t work hard,
what incentive is there to slave away for your corporate masters?”God, I think about this almost every fucking day.
This is not solely an American problem either, though it is much more of an issue there. This more than just about any other issue is what is destroying my generations quality of life and mental health.
I’m Canadian and am in over $50,000 in debt from about 4 years of post secondary education. By the time I graduate it will probably be at least $60,000.
My tuition is relatively low $5000-6000 per year, but many Canadians are paying easily double this. The biggest cost for me is housing which is also growing out of control. I’m paying over $7,000 a year just in housing costs. I get grants for being a full time student, low income and for having permanent disabilities. But these grants barely cover a third of my yearly expenses. The rest ~$10,000+ all go to student loans.
I honestly have no idea how I’m ever going to get out of debt.
Maybe that’s not as bad as the states, but even this kind of debt can takes years to decades to pay off, especially if you do not have secure, high wage, full time employment after you graduate (whuch many will not have due to the precarious nature of this new economy).
This kind of debt load being placed on an entire generation is not sustainable. There will come a point where this whole system will collapse.
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