Those that can't pay it, simply can not, but those who can pay it don't want to suffer the individual penalties of doing so. Mess one's credit report up and no

Those that can't pay it, simply can not, but those who can pay it don't want to suffer the individual penalties of doing so. Mess one's credit report up and now an individual has to hope not to get sued and harassed by collections calls and probably give up financing anything for the next 7 years whether it's a new credit card, car, or house. There's also a small minority of people also savvy enough to pull off defaulting without the legal repercussions. Unless there is a coordinated effort, simply defaulting by one's self would be suicide. There is also the risk/reward factor. Defaulting on 100-200k loans with no income? high risk, but also a high reward potential. Lawyers know you can extract blood from a stone. Defaulting on 5k worth of loans making 50-60k/year? High risk, low reward. Better to just make the payments for 1-3 years and be done with them.