Except in the subprime debacle, millions of people could declare bankruptcy and walk away. With student loans. The debtors are simply screwed with no recourse. That’s a big difference.
Apparently the people that started http://rollingjubilee.org/ were originally working on a student debt strike project. Not sure exactly why they switched to a medical debt project, but it's certainly a worthy one.
My assumption is that the government and lenders of government guaranteed loans aren't selling the delinquent accounts for pennies on the dollar.
The point of a strike is to build power for the striking class so that the creditor class is forced to make significant concessions up to and including relieving all of it. To be clear, this would mean huge numbers of people simply stop paying in a coordinated and public fashion.
However I still have a government guaranteed loan that was issued by a bank. If I default on it that bank isn't selling my account. They'll garnish my wages. Also I never plan on paying off my loan early! It's only 2.25% apr! I got lucky. Rates were really really low when I graduated and consolidated my loans.
"Student debt has surpassed $1 trillion partly because it is one of the most protected forms of debt by federal law. Student debtors can rarely discharge their loans in bankruptcy and lenders have rights to garnish wages and social security payments. The vast majority of student loans have these federal guarantees. We cannot buy these loans because there is no secondary market."