It is justice, not greed, that people have to pay back money they borrow.

No. You're turning people into serfs for the better part of their adult life for a decision they made as a teenager. That's not justice, that's cruelty.

$22K in debt isn't serfdom, that's the price of a Honda Civic. It takes few grand a year to keep up with interest.

If I bought the Civic at least I could discharge the loan through bankruptcy. You're not allowed to do that with education loans. They're the only kind of debt I'm aware of where this is the case and it's unclear to me why we should treat our children any differently than we expect to be treated with regards to debt.

I think there are a lot of issues with the system, not least of which is that it's possible to accrue that much debt without any credit check. But let's not pretend that the system isn't rigged to saddle people with debt.

22k is an average. There are many people whose debts are significantly more.

Even with 100k in debt you're talking 7k interest. Get a job in sewer maintenance instead of museum curation and you'll have no problem paying that off.

The banks manipulate data and interest rates in violation of the law. Once the agreement has been broken by one side, how is it justice to make sure the other side follows the agreement to the letter?

Was your old boss vehemently anti-immigrant or vehemently anti-illegal immigrant? I'm reminded of my wife, who legally immigrated to the states after getting a Ph.D. and working very hard. She finds illegal immigration quite aggravating and has sardonically suggested bringing over her parents for the social benefits because the rule-breakers seem to get rewarded with public benefits.