Paying for passage
by Ιασονας
We have now welcomed into the 21st century the first generation of young Americans to enter adulthood deeply in debt. But there has been at least one other group of people who entered adulthood in this country on similar terms. Those were the indentured servants — young people who signed a contract called an “indenture” which granted them passage to the New World in exchange for X years of labor to an employer. Now we are seeing a new set of indentured servants, this time natives who in going to college sign an indenture, granting them passage into the job market in exchange for X years of labor to pay off that $30k.
[EDIT: Looks like someone else thought of it first, and much more thoroughly. Call me dramatic, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the total U.S. student loan debt now exceeds all credit card debt in the country, and not by a little bit.]
[EDIT 2: Oh hey, Scott Alexander is talking about this too.]
