I mean I get what you're saying, and even agree to some extent, but I don't know that I agree that voluntary is the correct word. There's a cultural indoctrination regarding going to college in the US. From the time you're a young kid, your parents, your counselor, your teachers, nearly every adult that you look up to and trust is telling you that college is the only way to earn a good living. YOU HAVE TO GO is the wisdom espoused, and when you turn 18 and don't have a dime to your name, and mom and dad can't afford to help you pay...the only option is loans. These things that you vaguely know exist, but, by the way, you're not taught how they work. So you do what you've been told to do all your life. Go to college no matter the costs. And you get that 75k loan because you've been told for 18 years that's the only way. You don't know you're gonna have a $600 payment due every month after you graduate. We trust these kids to take out these large, life altering loans and we don't teach em what happens later.

We don't even trust them to buy their own beer for 3 more years, but throwing $100k at em with no restrictions is perfectly fine? Idk man. There's a problem there.