Tortured logic. "Pausing student loans" not only paused payments but also interest accrual for several years. While their nominal student debt is the same, any individual's increases in salary/wages over that time mean that their "real" debt is on average probably 6-15% lower than it was at the beginning of the pause.

Sure, they may have taken on other debt in the meantime but this article does nothing to disprove that debt would have been taken on anyways. It's not an article in good faith - they try to make it sound like the growth in debt was student-loan debt but it was other things. The article also uses a shotgun approach to list all the ways that pausing student loan debt could have 'made' people take on more debt than the would have otherwise -- but they never state what that new debt is or attempt to do any analysis of the driving factors that led to taking on that debt.

With the rise of "afterpay", "klarna", etc...it might mostly be 0% interest debt, which is even a potentially financially responsible choice. It also might not be, but this article does no investigation whatsoever. My real guess though is it's likely driven primarily by sharply rising vehicle prices. In no way would the student debt pause increase the need for a frugal, but very expensive, vehicle purchase in the past 2 years.