The comparison with mortgages is fallacious. A mortgage is for a material good which can be repossessed and has an intrinsic value independent of its current ow

The comparison with mortgages is fallacious. A mortgage is for a material good which can be repossessed and has an intrinsic value independent of its current owner. An education has neither of those properties. And as has already been mentioned, students loans carry zero risk for the lenders, because the debt cannot be discharged by bankruptcy. One way or another, the lender will get that money back, even if they have to wait for your take your estate when you die. I agree that the current educational debt levels present sustainability problems... but trying to compare apples to oranges only leads to worse public policy than we already have.