[jyl]

One thing I wonder about is how much government-guaranteed student loan debt can a student realistically pile up? I recall there were annual limits on Stafford and Perkins loans, which aren't all that high, but I haven't taken out a student loan in many decades.

You see, if the limits are such that a four-year college student can only really accumulate a total of, let's say, $20K in govt-guaranteed debt, then I'm not sure why it is so worrisome. Student loan debts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, they follow you for the rest of your life, if you're on unemployment the loan gets serviced from your UE check, etc. Realistically, the vast majority of people with a college degree are going to have enough cumulative income to eventually pay back $20K plus interest, even if they defer or default or file BK or whatever initially. This assumes the lenders and govt are aggressive about collecting, and I'm not sure why they wouldn't be.

But if the limits are such that four-year students can accumulate $100K in govt-guaranteed debt, then that seems more worrisome.

Given the average debt load mentioned in my earlier post, I think/guess the situation might be closer to the first scenario, but I have not looked into it.

Private debt is not govt-guaranteed, so its not a threat to the taxpayer, though it is a threat to the student.