Reply #4: yup-- I finished college in 1989 and grad school in 1995....

[mike_c]

I've been paying over $700/month on my student loan debt for almost 15 years and the principle-- about $70,000 for ten years of higher education through my doctorate-- the principle has only declined about $5,000 in FIFTEEN YEARS. I'll reach retirement age in six or seven years. I cannot live long enough to pay that debt off, let alone work long enough. Over my working life I will have helped educate several thousands of university students, helping to fuel the economic engine they constitute in the workforce (and helping to hook many of THEM into the same lifetime of debt and indentured servitude that I've entered).

This is utterly insane. My partner and I are preparing for homelessness when we retire. That's the future we face.