Some More on Student Loans

Natasha Chart has a pretty heart-wrenching tale of student loan debt up on OpenLeft today. This snippet doesn't do the entire post justice, but here's a taste:

How stupid I was. I really enjoyed my studies and had great professors, but got no return on my investment. Since graduating college, I have yet to make, with benefits calculated in, more at any job than I was making in 1999. My degree overqualifies me for the jobs I had ten years ago, and the process of getting it kept me from staying up to date with most of the work I had after that.

My current salary barely keeps up with the interest payments on my debt. I try not to think about it too much and I'm really good at keeping up appearances, but I have no idea how to get out from under it. - OpenLeft

I've made the case before that forgiving student loan debt would be an incredible boost to the economy. Or, barring that, making "getting started loans" available to young people. (For the record, I wouldn't be eligible for the kind of getting started loan I'm advocating.) The powers that be did right by the banks, and the stimulus helped a lot of low-skill workers get construction jobs, but the unspoken millions of young people with college degrees, few job prospects, and loads of debt are forgotten. The icons of our economy got their start in their 20s, and our economy is at a risk of a lost generation of entrepreneurs and leaders because of this financial crisis and great recession.

I hope those at the Jobs Summit don't forget about that.

I hope.

[Update] I guess this is one way to avoid too much debt.