People tend to grossly exaggerate the amount of loans people generally take out. Median student debt is about $30k and those with $100k or more are overwhelmingly concentrated in professional degrees.
Making loans dischargeable under certain circumstances is just common sense. Debt in large amounts that can never be discharged is ridiculous as a concept. That being said, student loans are simply unsecured loans, which aren't going to be offered at reasonable rates in those amounts.
This is why we should probably restore funding to public education, by the way.
Yes, this is why only 1/3 of borrowers are actually paying their loans, because $30k in debt is nothing. Default rates among many of the cohorts is 15-20%. Default rates increase with balances, mainly because the advanced degrees don't pay as much. Then you get high defaults among lower balances because the borrowers fail to graduate.
Did you know that among the 2005 cohort of loans the remaining balance is ~60%. They should only have ~10% remaining.
You do realize that taking out $30k in debt when you're making $40k, while trying to afford a car, and a place to live, is a pretty huge burden?
Student loans were offered at reasonable rates before 2005, when *PRIVATE* student loans were dischargable. This is the continual lie told, that the market simply didn't exist before 2005. Sallie Mae, Access, Nelnet, MyRichUncle, First Marblehead, were all making private loans then. Most did so pretty successfully, at least until they did so stupidly (Direct To Consumer loans).