I think it's more complicated than that. It's a huge, broken system. 17-year-olds can't fully grasp the burden of their debt when they take it on, and they've been told all their lives that they need to go to college to be successful.

You've got a great potion for disaster here: 1) You can't be denied an education loan. 2) Education loans can't be wiped out in bankruptcy because 3) You can't repossess an education. 4) Because of the above factors, there's little incentive for colleges to keep cost of attendance low.

I have no idea what the solution should be, but this problem can't continue indefinitely. It's a more complicated issue than just, "Millennials are just looking for handouts and don't want to pay their debts."

"Lots of kids are..."

More like... lots of people are making up absurd statements based on their perception of a political candidate. I don't know of a single, single person who is supporting Bernie because they think he's going to post-defacto erase their college debt. Especially since that's not even something he's ever suggested.

But yeah, I'm sure "lots of kids" are holding out for that. You should've thrown in the swear word "millennials" for true effect.

I'm a recent graduate. People don't go to college because they think they'll have their debt absolved. They go to college because an undergrad degree is now the equivalent of a HS degree 30 years ago. It's simply a prerequisite, and every parent/counselor is pushing children towards it.

Besides, the students described in the article graduated long before Bernie sanders arrived on the scene. He was clearly not a factor in their decision to attend in the first place.

Or, you know, lots of kids can't find work that pays for shelter, food, clothes, transport, and interest on six figures. Despite being young and dumb, and told by most everyone that the only way they'd get such a job would be to, you know, take out those six figure loans.

The post-2008 recovery has been a very poor recovery as far as jobs are concerned. Add in that wages for the less than six figure jobs have been stagnant since most of these people have been alive, and, well, there you are.

Perhaps coming up with an educational system that doesn't indenture students to banks (who have zero risk on their loans - talk about lack of skin in the game!), and doesn't increase in price at a multiple of the inflation rate might be a good idea?

I've noticed that nearly everyone whose reaction to 'the kids these days' on things like this went to school when going to school was actually affordable by the non-wealthy.

It needn't be magic. As one example, the Welsh Government cancelled many student loans for students in (or from?) Wales.

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93...

It's effectively waving a wand to make their bad loans go away when the federal reserve buys toxic mortgage backed securities from the banks with quantitative easing.

Well it was magic'd into existence so magic it back out. Most degrees are not worth the cost because the cost is set by loose credit, and credit is ex nihilo.

Sources?