You’ve seen the National Debt Clock. At $18 trillion, it’s something we’d rather forget. 

But did you know that we have another pile of debt on our hands? It’s the student loan debt bomb, and it grows by $3,000 per second for a current debt measurement of nearly $1.3 trillion!

 

What’s even more alarming is how fast that debt number has risen: only a decade ago student loan debt registered at $260 billion. According to MarketWatch:

“Skyrocketing college costs, cuts to public funding for higher education, stagnant incomes and the growth in the college-going population are largely to blame for the uptick in outstanding student loans over the past decade. Now, about 40 million Americans are carrying some student loans and about 70% of students graduate college with debt.

This burden is likely preventing many of these Americans from buying houses and cars and fueling economic growth in other ways, according to research from the New York Federal Reserve and others. And only 37% of borrowers are actually paying down this debt.”

With this increasing debt load, does it seem like we should consider steering young people into more cost-effective higher education options, such as apprenticeships or vocational schools?

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