Student Loan Debt...

[mike_c]

44. the bad news is....

I'm in pretty much the same boat, but nearly twenty years later. My loans were in default for a few years at the beginning-- try paying over $1000 monthly on a post-doc's $25K salary (which seemed luxurious at the time, in the early 1990s, as it came with health insurance and after nearly ten years living on student work stipends). I've been paying for the last 15 years or so though, and got the payments reduced to a more affordable $700 or so a month once I got an actual tenure track job, but after 15 years the principle of my original $70K or so has only declined by about $5K. I'll reach retirement age within the next 5 years or so. I'll not only not work long enough to pay off the debt, but I likely won't live long enough even if I work until the day I die.

Only in America would creating a generation of indentured servants in exchange for the education that enables their servitude seem like a good idea.