The Siren's Call

Juxtaposed with the student loan balloon is the reason that people signed on to get an education that didn't appear to have a useful degree.

For a very long time a degree at all was your ticket in the door to a decent job that led to little difficulty in getting the American dream going.

The economy was doing well enough that all that was needed was a filter to show that the candidate wasn't a quitter who could see something to conclusion and a degree in navel lint weaving met that.

And as long as the economy did well, these graduates could get jobs.

And they did.

And they are in the comments, right now, saying, "I paid my loans back!" and "They signed a contract, they owe the money!"

But what kept people signing up for a degree in navel lint weaving when such degrees without any experience to back them were, obviously, no longer leading to jobs that would pay back the loans which were now three to five times larger than the person in the comments took out.

Constantly hearing that people with a college degree, over their lifetime, made up to five times what someone who did not.

While blithely ignoring the 5,000 sq ft house the local plumber and construction contractor owned outright...

That constant push to go to college starts in middle school.  High school is entirely college prep without any regard to getting someone into the trades.

Ask Mike Rowe.

We're running short of people in lots of places.  Welders.  Mechanics.  Plumbers.

Those skills aren't complicated, but they are hard.

How's this for size?  We give an apprenticeship to anyone in default on their student loans for welding, mechanic, plumbing... etc... any trade with a shortage; and forgive their loan if they can stay employed for five years doing that trade.

Give companies who hire them a tax incentive too.

Remember a tax-paying worker who can buy goods is better than financially crippling someone for life; and this results in a net-positive for society rather than a negative.