From the New York Times, college students are graduating with increasing amounts of debt, a sum that totals more than Americans are spending on credit cards for the first time.
American labor policy has been to increase the number of college-educated workers as much as possible since the end of the Second World War. Still, the cost of education has been outpacing wages by a factor of 2.5 since 1980. Given the amount of the cost that is borne by student loans, this number is deceptive as to its real impact. The actual amount of wealth spent on education will also have to include interest payments as well.
We believe that there has been a critical error in policy, such that the American government has equated credentials with critical skills. The American economy could end up with millions of college-graduates with credentials on which they are paying interest, but without the skills required by the emerging world economy.