Stop Smiling. Your Parents Sold You Out.

Kevin Carey:

American college students now owe more than $1 trillion on their student loans, more than total borrowing on credit cards or auto loans. Given how much people in our society like to drive cars and put their shopping bills on plastic, this is an astonishing sum. Borrowing for higher education used to be rare. Now students routinely leave college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt and, in the current job market, shaky prospects for paying it back.

The average amount of student debt carried in the United States by graduating seniors? $25,000. But many owe more than twice that, and forget about it if you plan to get a professional degree.

This represents an inter-generational betrayal with far-reaching consequences for the shape of civic life. Basically, our parents have sold us out.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 10, 2012 3:11 AM
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