420k owed at birth. Just damn.
What is the avg and median lifetime earnings Drc? You seem to have a handle on where these stats are!
just a google brings me to cumulative lifetime earnings for a bach deg of around 2 million [i could find no median.]
Using this estimate, kids are born owing 21% of their lifetime earnings. KRAP!
Someone with a Bachelor’s degree who starts working at age 22, would earn something on the order of $3 million over a lifetime in constant (inflation-adjusted) 2007 dollars (this is just eyeballing figures on the chart shown here: http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2009/07/average-lifetime-earnings-trajectories.html). Remember that the $420,000 debt figure is in today’s dollars. If you let it rise with future inflation, it would be much greater. So the $3 million lifetime income figure is an “apples-to-apples” comparison to the debt figure.
So clearly those with a college education can “afford” this debt, although it should be kept in mind that this would be on top of whatever lifetime taxes they will owe.
Those with only a high school education will fare much more poorly: even accounting for being able to start work at 18, their lifetime income would be about $1.7 million.
Here’s some more dismal figures about generational theft to ponder: http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2009/06/generation-theft.html