The problem with your solution is that the majority of student loans are government insured Stafford loans and a "defaulted" loan is still paid back to the lender for full principle by the American taxpayer. Support for this solution would be miniscule.
In an aside, loans made to college kids to get a quality education is not a ridiculous loan on ridiculous terms to people who can't afford them.
I believe the American Taxpayer will have to pay for this either way, the choice is between effectively destroying the lives of those that default or giving them a fighting chance.
> "In an aside, loans made to college kids to get a quality education is not a ridiculous loan on ridiculous terms to people who can't afford them."
It doesn't hurt that (at least for me) the ONLY reason I went to college was for the degree saying CS. I had been programming for years, wrote some WoW addons, and was bored out of my mind for 3 years straight taking lectures on things I could have easily read in textbooks or even off wikipedia. But the number of job opportunities when you have BS of CS on your resume are just orders of magnitude larger.
That is colossally stupid. We need a better way to certify people for things than wasting years and tens of thousands of their dollars on this nonsense.
I basically agree with you, but these ARE loans made to people without a specific, current means to afford them.
That seems perfectly appropriate to me (and I assume to you), but this lack of being able to predict the future income stream of an individual is a large driver in making them not dischargeable, because that allows the product to exist.
Because I agree with you(r presumed position) that these are not ridiculous loans and that their availability should be encouraged, I'm strongly in support of the terms necessary to make them available.
In an aside, loans made to college kids to get a quality education is not a ridiculous loan on ridiculous terms to people who can't afford them.