Reply #20: That is EXACTLY what this is. I am part of an entire generation of slaves to debt

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I am 28 years old and $180,000+ in debt after undergrad and grad school. That's not to mention thousands in medical debt because I had emergency surgery while in grad school and could not afford health insurance. I left grad school to find there were no jobs that would pay anything near what I needed to service my debt, and despite best efforts to pay fell into default on several loans. I'm now having to deal with a sleazy collection agency and hoping that an application to consolidate my loans w/ the federal government (and get some kind of income-based repayment program) to avoid garnishment of my wages, which would probably result in me losing my job. The collection agency is making out like a bandit, since federal law permitted them to add 18.5 percent (!) to the amount owed on my debt for their "services." It just gets worse and worse.

Not to mention, I'm applying for a professional license (the REASON I incurred all this debt!) which may be denied or delayed as a result of my student loans and medical debts.

AND, even if I get back in good standing, I will be paying for DECADES unless I get some amazing job in the future that pays enough to make larger payments on the principal. Trouble is, it looks like the days of those jobs being available is over. I will be a slave to this debt for a long, long time.

I talked to my stepdad about this situation the other day, who remembers going to medical school a little over a generation ago. Sure, he went to a state school, but remembers paying a little under $1000 for a semester, and even less than that if he did a certain number of pro bono hours. Luckily, in college I had a merit scholarship. In grad school, it cost me over $50,000/yr in tuition and living expenses. I don't think my parents' generation can even understand the degree to which their kids are on the hook for money they can't pay to get the kind of education we were told we should pursue.

Nowadays, whenever I hear a friend saying they're thinking of going back to school because the job market is terrible, I sound the alarm. It's a total scam, and the whole paradigm of "more degrees = more success" has become a trap that only helps banks who have leveraged our futures.