Don't forget pointing at them for the rest of their lives and condemning them for the crime of "making bad decisions" ie trying to better themselves and prepare themselves for a fulfilling vocation that either doesn't exist or pays poverty wages (teachers, paramedics, counselors, etc) in the US, all to drink in that sweet, sweet schadenfreude of the suffering of your fellow citizens.

The oligarchs used their bully pulpit of all major media that they own to train us to undermine one another, compete against one another, and root against one another so we'd never unite against our common enemy, them. This is merely the result of that, all the peasants blind after stabbing each other's eyes out, with the owners looking down at their livestock and laughing.

students get 50k in debt to make 1-1.5m more in their careers. It's an investment, how is that predatory?

I understand some practices are, and it's been spurred by the government releasing the flood gates of loans, letting 18 year olds rack up 200k in debt while encouraging universities to bloat the costs of college, but for the most part, getting a degree and going in debt is worth every penny.

Gotta spin that narrative of irresponsible kids spending money recklessly tho

Yeah I struggled to find anything in the article or linked citations that debt was added, only cards. There was a bit about mortgages and loans but I don't know how that compares to normal YOY to know if it really means anything.

It’s not just 20-somethings. I’m 50 and still have $53k in student loan debt.

Yes, thank you, end student loans. It's just bloated the whole system while taking advantage of young naive kids who are told by public schools that if they don't go to universities, they're failures.

Or at least teach teenagers how it works. Interest too. Oh, and while we’re at it, taxes.

When your life is already irrevocably fucked for listening to what you're told for 18 years and attempting to better yourself by pursuing a vocation you're passionate about, in a country that doesn't value the most important professions like teaching, you can eat saltines in a rented room and wait to die while your fellow Americans insult you for "making bad decisions," or you can buy a nice thing with a credit card and then continue to eat saltines in a rented room waiting to die while your fellow Americans insult you.

At least with the latter you have a nice thing to die with. Sure as shit won't get any "nice" from your fellow Americans who gain pleasure from your misery.

I think it has more to do with why student loans were paused, the pandemic. Think of the number of people who lost their jobs and what the job market looks like now.

The first rule of financial literacy is

Not taught to most Americans, unfortunately.

I wonder if a lot of the people who had their loan payments paused also lost their jobs or had to find less lucrative employment outside of their degree specialty due to the pandemic? That seems to me like a simple explanation for why their debt would increase

The article doesn't go into how much debt anyone took on nor if anyone factored in student loans before taking on more debt.

Should it, in theory yes. Did it, according to this article no.

No, no, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. With the payments on pause, that meant they would never have to repay the loans. So, of course, that means go buy ALL the things.

There are probably plenty of people who got screwed by Covid, and had no choice but to pay for stuff with credit, but I’d guess a lot of people thought the pause meant it was gone.