A few things about student debt aren't addressed here and ignoring them probably underestimates how problematic the situation is: 1. Student debt is saddled on what should be major spenders in the economy 5-10 years down the line in a way mortgage or other debt is not. 2. Student debt has been stripped of most protections found in other forms of debt. Dollar for dollar you student loan is more dire than your mortgage because there's no escape route. 3. Student debt is meant to have a return for the indebted, but the amount of that return has been steadily decreasing for ages now.
As currently written, you can get yourself on an income-adjusted plan, make minimum payments, and then forgive the whole stupid thing after 360 of them. Granted, that's a 30-year millstone and requires an appalling amount of interaction with a bunch of shifting lenders and agencies (and they've gotten real good at losing your paperwork, if you know what I mean). But it's worth it. My wife took out $150k in loans to get a medical degree. At the end of 30 years, at our current rate, she'll owe the government $3m. 45% of our clients are on medicaid. Fuck that shit.
It actually depends on the loan. However, in most cases the answer is yes. There are some government loans where you do have to pay the interest but none accumulates (or what accumulates is forgiven) while you are in school. I believe there is another type (again, through the gov’t) where the total lifetime interest can be forgiven if certain conditions are met. This is based off recollection so I might be a little wrong on some details but I know for sure there’s a type in line with the first because I had some like that.
Ouch yeah that'd be a millstone. Mine, thankfully, has the interest written off so I've been happily whittling it away for a few years and am now halfway through. As of 2006 our student loans have their interest written off provided you stay in NZ, after a certain amount of time overseas the interest will kick in. I think it's over a year as I spent a year in Australia and never incurred anything extra.
I agree with all of this, and can point to links for all of it. However, the "financial calamity" of elevated student debt has an outsized effect on those carrying it; for the financial class it's excellent debt because it can't be disbursed. This is one of the reasons the for-profit college has become such a thing: if you default on your loans, the government pays the people you owe and comes after you. It's entirely risk-free. Sure- you don't have enough money to buy more than a slice of avocado toast every other two weeks but that's an externality. "Millennials don't have any money to spend" is certainly a contributor to any impending financial crisis. But if you're in the finance industry, you lurrrvvvvvvv student loan debt.