[falcolas]

> People still decided to respect the words onto which they signed their name.

18 year olds. We don't consider them responsible enough to drink alcohol, yet we expect them to take on crippling amounts of life-long debt? We shouldn't. It's setting them, and society at large, for failure just to make a few quick bucks.

> And now, those same people see that others get benefits from not acting with the same responsibility.

For very different amounts of money. People who went to college 20 years ago paid less than half than folks who just graduated. 10 years ago was 75% of today. A lot of people are ignoring this fact.

Society is about helping everyone, not just a few individuals who an individual deems as "responsible".

[godelski]

Yeah I think a lot of people are acting like the system is static and not dynamic. Tuition increases over year in unexpected amounts. Interest rates do too. Student loan costs are similar to a 30 year mortgage cost. If you're expecting 18 year olds to accurately know what 30 years (or even 10 years) is, then you're fooling yourself. They just don't have that experience. They're just relying on what their parents and society told them: "go to college". But this is exacerbated by everyone acting like what worked in the past works today. You can't go in thinking that school can be paid off by working over the summer (like my dad did) as that just isn't going to happen. Schooling is also more difficult now because intelligence has progressed and what students need to learn to stay up to date is a higher bar. This makes working during schooling harder too. The ecosystem is moving at a rapid pace and ignoring this just increases the problems.

[ctoth]

Just to add a bit of context here, a vast majority of those who have "crippling amounts of life-long debt" used their money for grad school, and so certainly were not merely 18 when they made this decision.

[falcolas]

$40,000, the 2020 average cost of tuition (not including living expenses, books, etc), at up to 14% compounding interest... You'll have to pay over $450 a month just to cover interest.

It doesn't take that much debt at student loan interest rates to be "crushing" in this economy.

[AS37]

>18 year olds. We don't consider them responsible enough to drink alcohol, yet we expect them to take on crippling amounts of life-long debt?

In my country, as in most of the world, 18 year olds can drink alcohol. They can also make many other life-altering decisions.