Today most people believe that we live in a modern enlightened
society that is superior in every way to societies of the past. In this
narrative, the forces of human progress have moved us inevitably from oppressive
feudal relations that limited freedom and opportunities to a benevolent capitalism
that allows for human liberation from bonds of servitude. But the self-congratulatory
celebration may be premature. It is based on the assumption that the corporate
elite and dominant classes of contemporary capitalism are somehow less
rapacious and predatory than the feudal lords of the past. This would be a mistake.
Today the financial oligarchy has a stranglehold over our
political and economic system. The latest victims are college students. A new
form of debt peonage is spreading across the land. It is driven by student
loans and it follows a familiar script found in earlier forms of servitude.
Students are promised that a four-year university credential will guarantee employment,
material success, and economic security.
But in order to receive these benefits one must pay a price. As the cost
of a college degree rises, increasing numbers take out private student loans as
an investment in their human capital.
But the promise is illusory. Jobs are scarce. Those that are
available pay low wages. With debt
payments hanging over their head, graduates are forced to take jobs they would
normally forego for the hope of better prospects elsewhere. Tying students to jobs in order to work off
their debt is a potent form of social control, as effective today as it was in
the bad old days of entrapment and debt bondage.
Even those who can find semi-decent paying jobs discover
that a large chunk of their income is consumed by student loan debt payments. Chances
of qualifying for a home mortgage under such debt conditions are slim to none. Thus,
discretionary spending is curtailed, material comfort postponed.
The latest figures are staggering. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card
debt. 37 million Americans owe close to $1 trillion in student loan payments.
While the financial sector may benefit from this
arrangement, it puts an enormous drag on the national economy that depends on
college graduates to purchase new homes and fill them with appliances and
furniture. Instead, record numbers are joining the ranks of the “boomerang
children” who return home to live with their parents until they can establish financial
stability, which is increasingly remote.
As we sociologists like to say --- student debt is not a
personal problem, it is a social problem; it will require an organized social
movement and some radical social policy to solve this growing national tragedy.
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