If anything, the fact that the debt 'crisis' is global will end up making student loans easy(er) to repay (because inflation).
So the requirement of debt for a chance, is probably a harbinger of a really, really shitty time.
(NOTE: please... no "but I am different in w.r.t. that stuff" posts... the terms "many", "significant portion", and "most" mean some aren't in that category, but that doesn't change the statistics).
Still, it hardly takes a $50,000 psychology degree (people just looking for a credential should be fine with a state school) to get a job in a high tech factory, a $10,000 or $15,000 technology certificate is a lot more sensible.
And I don't mean to argue that these choices are easy or that it is great that people face them, but going $150,000 into debt is not the only path out there.
i) Dying while fighting in trench warfare
ii) Paying back money loaned to you for your education (presumably, while living in a comparably safe and climate controlled apartment)
It's fine to say things people disagree with, but this is just non-sense.
If I'd been a soldier soldier deployed in battle, or if I'd lost a family member in battle, I would find your comment one of the more offensive things I've ever seen on HN.
I guess what I meant was "at least it was over quick" meaning that you died and that was the end of it. I'm not saying that paying back a loan is definitely equivalent to dying, but there are plenty of people killing themselves over debt that they cannot escape.
The problem in my mind is not that it was loaned to people to pursue their education (that's good!) but that it was loaned to them with no regard for their ability to pay it back. $200k for a finance degree or engineering or something like that with a reasonable chance of paying it off is good. But $200k loaned to someone to get a bachelors in sociology is not a good bet since they have little prospect of paying it off. And no recourse once they find out how stupid they've been.
In WWII people made tremendous sacrifices for the good of the country and quite possibly freedom world-wide. That's incredibly noble. The leaders who had to make tough choices did so knowing that they would be sending many people to their deaths and (hopefully) took that responsibility seriously.
I doubt many private university presidents really truly care how many lives they're ruining by allowing totally egregious interest rates.
EDIT: debt driven suicide on google pulls a lot of hits: http://www.google.com/search?q=debt+driven+suicide&oq=de...
EDIT2: Thanks for at least telling me why you think I'm an insensitive clod. I appreciate it.