Last number I looked at was something like half of people getting Bachelor's degree are unemployed or underemployed. Don't know if it's inflated but job discussion forums are full of people with degrees in IT and Business that can't get jobs outside minimum or low wage. For for-profit, minimum payments can be around $2000 a month. So, a job offering $20k a year entry-level is a net loss.

What's happening is pretty obvious. People are told they need a degree to get a decent job with many companies even including that in job listings. Colleges and high schools show charts about how much extra people with degrees make. Then, people get degrees with student loans from colleges that often don't care about job placement or coaching on the major. Then, they get out into real world to find businesses all lied, don't care about them, expect more than the degree, and try to underpay them. Result is all kinds of people that can't pay their student loan bills.

Looks like a giant scam benefiting politicians, colleges, and student loan industry to me. Taxpayers and graduates are left with the burdens without rewards. A chunk of them make it, though, so it's not all losses.

It is supposed to be mutually beneficial, but it isn't.

A lot of this is getting driven by for-profit schools. The loan burden at for-profit colleges tends to be higher than non-profit colleges. Their share of DoE loans is about 25%. The default rate of for-profit students is three times that of non-profit students. Tuition for an associate degree program at a for-profit school will run you about $35,000/year versus $8,000/year at a non-profit school.

On top of this, they tend to mislead students about employment prospects. You might argue that we shouldn't behave paternalistically, but keep in mind that the Dept. of Education is party here. The feds have a strong interest in not supporting bad debt.

Not sure if joking...