The current situation concerning student debt is of extreme importance for US citizens and authorities. The problem is well described in the article “How American Universities Turned into Corporations” by Andrew Rossi published in Time journal. Rossi explains that the core problem behind the increasing debt of US students is the shift in the understanding of higher education towards it being an individual good rather than a private one.
In other words, people in the US learned to believe that higher education benefits individuals rather than helps the nation to prosper and flourish. As a result, the business of student loans began it develop, which encouraged universities to compete for the money. The competition turned higher education institutions into businesses rather than nonprofit organizations with public missions. In short, Rossi provides a comprehensive description of the problem of student debt with a historical analysis of the matter.
I agree with the author that the problem with student debt is to be addressed in the nearest future. Indeed, many students are impoverished by increasing tuition rates caused by aggressive competition among universities. However, I was struck by the fact that even universities suffer from this competition because they often have to build new facilities with the money they do not have or higher expensive administrators instead of qualified professors.
Apart from increased stress and financial struggles, I believe that the situation with student loans leads to demographical problems. Many of my peers postpone their family life because they want to pay off their debt or earn enough to afford to have a family and pay the interest on student loans. While Rossi provides holistic information about the origin of the problem, I was disappointed that no adequate solutions to the problem are observed. Rather than merely discussing the issue, the US nation should focus on finding effective strategies to address the matter with the highest efficiency.