[Chewbarkah]

Solution to student debt problem:
1) Cap borrowing for college at $10,000.
2) Cap borrowing for attending degree mills, nail & hair colleges, etc. at $0.00.
3) Tax university professor and staff income over $100,000 per year at 100%.
4) Require a personal finance course for high school graduation.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

1. Cap borrowing for college at $10,000.
2. Cap borrowing for attending degree mills, nail & hair colleges, etc. at $0.00.
3. Tax university professor and staff income over $100,000 per year at 100%.
4. Require a personal finance course for high school graduation.

IMHO the crucial issue starts, yes, with understanding personal finance.

But to me the crying need is for people graduating high school to have a vision of what a “job” is. A job is a contribution to, and participation in, society. Note well, I said “society,” not government. Those are two different things:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.

Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness;

the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices.

The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions.

The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one . . .
For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest . . . — Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

The requirements for the ability to contribute to society have varied historically, and presumably will in the future. For example, it’s gotten hard to make a living in manual labor. Any time you start out, you have low skills because you have no experience. As you gain experience, you become specialized; your experience is much more applicable to the field in which you work than to any other. So the fundamental problem you have starting out is to select well from the perspective of what will be needed/valued in the future.

I can define the problem, all right - I just don’t see how to solve it in the general case. I would have done well to have better even in my own personal case.