loan debt to get a useless liberal arts degree which will never “pay” well enough to be able to retire the debt.

There was a story I read a couple of days ago about a guy who moved to Thailand or someplace to escape $30,000 of student loan debt. My first thought was, “that's not a lot.” Think of this way:

You buy a car. You can afford $500 per month in payments on the loan. You'll pay off a $30,000 loan in about 60 months or so at $500 per month, assuming a 6% interest rate. But a $100,000 loan will never be paid off at $500 per month because the interest alone is $500 per month.

Now, if you buy a vehicle that doubles as a food truck and you can use it to make enough money to repay the loan, now it makes more sense and the loan is worth it. It's the same thing with a college education. If you're going to take on that kind of debt, make sure your degree will allow you to make enough money to make the debt worth it.

But getting a degree in basket weaving makes no sense if you have to go into debt to do it. You'll never weave enough baskets to make it worth the cost.