Little did I know that that key I rented with student loans would also open the door to a trap from which I would never escape.
"You signed a contract. You must honor it."
My response: a legally binding contract requires a meeting of the minds. In a rigged system, there can be no clear, mutual understanding of the terms so no meeting of the minds can exist. Even if there was, unjust enrichment for one party at the detriment in perpetuity of the other party should clearly make that contract null and void. After all, who in his or her right mind would sign up for a lifetime of enslavement to debt in exchange for no guarantee of a verifiable or tangible benefit? [Obviously I am not a lawyer; my argument may sound reasonable, but it has no legal basis].
"I paid my student loan debt and it would be unfair to me if you didn't have to pay yours."
My response is this: at which point did fairness become a factor? Is it fair that children of the wealthy are free to work hard and earn an education and enter the job force with no crushing financial afterthought while the rest of us must become indentured servants in exchange for the mere opportunity to work hard and earn that same education?
In the U.S., college tuition is a regressive tax. To a wealthy citizen, $200,000 buys a pair of earrings or a couple of designer handbags; to the wealthy, education is merely an accessory. [ii] For the rest of us, college education is essential. It can mean the difference between reliance on taxpayers and food stamps while juggling jobs at Walmart and McDonalds, or getting a real job, paying taxes and providing opportunities for our own children.
Fairness? Suppose a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of an illegal plant. After paying five years of his debt to society, a second man enters the same prison with the same charge and the same sentence as the first man.
One year later the illegal plant is declared a legal commodity. The first man is released after spending six years in prison and the second man is released after spending only one year in prison. Is it unfair to the first man that the second man is released from his debt?
Personal Responsibility
Some will decide to embrace the chains of their student loan debt using personal responsibility as justification for their sublimation while chanting the following mantra:
I must pay off the student loan debt I was forced to take in order to get the chance to work hard and earn an education that would hopefully qualify me to hopefully obtain a job that would hopefully pay me enough so that I could hopefully pay off the student loan debt that I was forced to take for the opportunity in the first place.
Back-breaking denial feels good to some people. They see debt as bad and hard work as a virtue, closing their eyes to the fact that people who work 20-hour days making poverty-level wages are nothing more than pathetic victims of a rigged, cyclic system from which there is little chance of escape. Thanks to Fox News, these victims see themselves patriots as they take second jobs at Walmart and McDonalds, the sweat of their backs easing their slide into the abyss of modern day slavery.
But not everyone watches Fox News. There are people who see the "work ethic" lie for what it is, mass hypnosis shared by shackled, happy slaves. They see the student loan debt trap for what it is. And they are beginning to revolt.
Playing the Game & The "Inevitable Default"
Although my federal student loan debt ($95,000) is current and managed through Income Based Repayment (I pay $50 per month, which doesn't even cover the weekly interest), my private student loans have been defaulted through no fault of my own.
For a while I bought into the personal responsibility lie. I managed my private student loan debt meticulously for 25 years. When I couldn't make the payments, I filed for deferments. When those ran out, I had my student loans placed into forbearance. When that was no longer an option, my loans became delinquent. I consolidated twice to buy time.
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