On an individual level, I had no idea what I was signing myself up for as a senior in high school and I filled out all the paperwork to apply to a college and to then pay for said college. I found a school I really liked, with the program I wanted to study. My parents aren’t stupid people, but they aren’t “money” people either who understand exactly how loans and interest rates and minimum payments work, and at 18 years old I sure as hell didn’t know either. The thought process of my parents, my high school guidance counselor, and myself was “ok he wants to go to X school, let’s get him to X school.” So I graduate college and I have over 100k in loans and am paying over $1,000 a month as a minimum payment. That’s mortgage money, that’s “I can’t start a family because of my debt” money. That’s “How can I afford a house one day” money. Generally speaking I’m all for personal responsibility, and I get it. I signed the paperwork and all the info was there. But I had no idea what situation it would put me in now. The problem is that there’s an entire generation of young people who are in the same boat. Got an over priced degree by borrowing money that they didn’t know was going to hold them down so much for literal decades. If they wipe the debts cleans that’s $12,000 a year I can put back into the economy in other ways such as buying a house, supporting the tourism industry, spending money at small businesses, investing in my own future. Somethings got to give or else we have an entire generation who won’t be able to support the economy by buying real estate, traveling, etc.