It's more than just pandering to millenials. This is also about pandering to Academia.

Depending on how the student loan bubble bursts, it could wind up with a number of institutions being forced to shut their doors, or make large cuts to staff/programs/etc.

Definitely a factor. Not just a coincidence that Warren was a professor, Sanders' wife was a college administrator, Buttigieg's dad is a professor...

Student loans are basically a variable tax to attend college. There should be a relief valve of pay like 10% extra in taxes until the principal is paid off. People paying interest on the loans can get a tax deduction for the interest as well (it actually makes no sense to have interest on the loans because that interest is going back to the Feds in 90% of cases).

federally subsidized student loans shouldn't exist. supply and demand--they are the reason college has gotten so expensive in the first place.

in the old days, people could pay tuition with a part-time job.

Looking at the data, the best estimates peg student loans to be consolidated to ~10-12% of the US 18+ population.

Not saying it _isn't_ part of the story, but I don't think it's as big of a factor as folks might initially (or anecdotally) believe.

that's also what they said about residential mortgage debt in 2007. never underestimate the bankers' ability to use one large batch of shitty loans to back an even bigger batch of them.