Student Loan Debt: A Case Study

In Rhode Island there being the location of Brown University along with many other well known schools there is a large margin of students who are not able to afford an education in a time where a college degree is key for success. For these students of whom do not fall under the circumstance where they qualify for financial aid they have to take out students loans that take years to pay off. In recent years the amount of student debt has been reaching an unimaginable amount as “Americans owe nearly $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million...In fact, the average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year” (Federal Student loan statistics). With a six percent increase in

With this in consideration the student debt level that is accumulating in the United States is unmatched by foreign contemporaries however with the free tuition comes a higher tax rate which allows for the money to be put into education at the state and federal level. In Germany a tax wedge of 49.3% is required to allow for a “debt free” higher education where as in the United States the tax wage is a mere 31.5% in relation. This higher tax that is taken from the population of Germany while for some people might make sense however, for the large amount of Americans who make more than the average American this would be unrealistic. In America where there is a large separation between the working class and upper class in population size as the percentage of households who make over $100,000 is less than ten percent of the population of the U.S. Furthermore, as the federal poverty line is considered to be roughly $23,050 for a family of four the population that falls below that level take up nearly twenty percent meaning that these families without aid will not have the ability to attend college.

Ultimately, free education as a whole may be a great idea to bring America up in global education levels along with stopping the continuous growth in student debt however at this point in time it seems impossible. In addition free higher education in the United States would require a complete reshaping of the economy as the U.S has a national debt that is reaching near twenty trillion dollars along with the recent president elect Donald J. Trump being a member of the top 1% the consideration of the lower and middle class people will likely be overpassed for the businesses of the