Huh?
People actually attended college and grad school in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Were you not born yet?
And, yes, they had invented student loans waaaaayyyyyy back then.
In the days of yore, the checks were issued by private banks; Citibank was a big player, and subsidized by the federal government.
The loans that are crushing seniors are the ones they took out to pay for their education decades ago.
What are your sources for your data?
First of all, the cost of college since the since the 70s has gone up 600%+ in real cost in that time. it’s up 150% in cost since I went in 2000 alone. Second, any debts from back then would be paid off at this point even in the worst case scenario. Third, total student loan debt outstanding from 2001 to 2016 in constant dollars increased from $340 billion to to $1.3 trillion. Student loans now are 1.6 trillion. Even if you assume 0% of the $340 billion outstanding in 2001 was paid off (which is a bad assumption), it means 80% of student loans outstanding were originated in the last 16 years. The amount of student loans issued in 1990 was less than 20 billion a year and in 1970 would have been a mere fraction of that.