The law is that student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. There are several ways they can be legally defaulted on, for example if the person becom

The law is that student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. There are several ways they can be legally defaulted on, for example if the person becomes disabled and begins receiving SSI. Plus, as you said they can simply not pay, but that completely and permanently trashes their credit, since it doesn't go away (or so I understand - I could be wrong about whether it eventually falls off their credit rating).