I truly believe that debt by itself can destroy relationships. You speak as a person who has the prospect of actually paying it off. What if your partner coming into the relationship has a lifetime debt that cannot be paid off at you and your partner's forseeable income level far into the future, until your 80 and 90's? Would you want to be paying debt for your entire life?

For someone who has the ability to make 80k a year, debt seems like something that can be managed away. If you have no hackerly skills, and work at minimum wage (like a large number of north americans these days) - what hope do you have of maintaining a relationship that is purely controlled by a debt collector?