US vs Foreign Student Debt

There’s a saying that usually gets attributed to Henry David Thoreau, and it goes as such: “If misery loves company, misery has company enough.” This probably helps explain a bit as to why so many people seem hypnotically drawn to stories of human hardship and despair, the thought being . . . “Well, at least I’m not as bad off as that guy.” Truth be told, when it comes to student loan debt though, U.S. students are far and away the worst off of anyone, the front-runners of a less-than-envious pack. USA! USA! USA!

Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and Fastweb.com, reported some months ago that the average college graduate in the United States accumulated just over $25,000 in student debt by the time they earn their degrees. By contrast, most college students in China find the whole notion of incurring student debt as virtually unheard of. Now, before you get the wrong idea about Chinese student debt, rest assured kids: they’ve got some debt, just not a whole lot of it . . . slightly more than $8 billion since 1999, a far cry from our gargantuan $1 Trillion here in the good ‘ol USA.

It was reported recently that 45% of college students from European Union countries who were eligible to start repaying loans had ‘disappeared’ or were officially in debt as of last April, 2011. Wait a second; disappeared? Not exactly, so don’t start hatching any ridiculous plans. Many of the EU students had simply returned to their home countries, either failing to inform the Student Loan Company (SLC) of their current whereabouts, or they just let their repayments lapse into default. Whoops. According to the Department Of Business, the total amount of unpaid EU debt from 2010 amounted to just more than $60 million. Is that all?

Wait a minute . . . I thought misery loved company? I’m feeling awfully lonely here. Isn’t there any other nation out there in this great big wide world of ours that can share in at least a little bit of the student loan debt misery that we’re shouldering so gallantly here in the United States? Nope. Sorry. We’re totally on our own with this one; winners in what looks to be a loosing game. We’re #1. We’re #1. We’re #1. L