[jlgreco]

> "little student loans."

You are correct on the "little" front. While it may seem astronomical to people in countries with different educational systems and people without career prospects, the median and mean student loan debt is under $30k.

So long as they are in a field with more than one major employer, then the NSA is hardly has significant power over them.

[Sven7]

And what is the mean and median savings rate?

[jlgreco]

Good enough that if these students seek employment and take their loans seriously, they are in no dire danger.

Student loan discussion is dominated by the few fools who wrack up massively debt then think that they can make the minimum required payment for 10 years and have everything turn out okay. The mean debt is also slewed upwards by people who acquire very large amounts of debt that is not an unusual amount for their field (doctors, particularly).

Those who don't actually graduate are another obvious cause of the perception that student loan debt is crippling (and for them it certainly is), but of course they are not being considered in this discussion unless the NSA is making a habit of hiring college dropouts.