The first paragraph of the original article clearly implies that at least some of these were private student loans, originated by a for-profit bank. His mom co-

The first paragraph of the original article clearly implies that at least some of these were private student loans, originated by a for-profit bank. His mom co-signed, but ended up declaring bankruptcy independently. If they're private loans that he defaulted on, nobody is "pickpocketing the government" — a bank made the wrong investment decision and lost money, which happens to millions of ordinary non-corporate people every day in a 401(k) somewhere. It's all just business until a real individual human being makes some bad decisions... at which point it's all his fault, it's a moral issue, he's a terrible person, and he better spend the rest of his life fixing this.