While in high school, many students dream of going to college and getting a career afterwards. This sounds like a simple plan, but there is one factor that has made it increasingly difficult for students to start their career on the right foot: student debt. As of now, around 44 million people owe 1.3 trillion dollars, with an average of $30,000 in debt. Although this may not seem like much per person, it can really add up when you take other factors into account. Unfortunately, this problem will only continue to get worse.

First off, we need to cover the situation of student debt in the US.. As of 2012, 71% of students who graduated from a four year institution have some form of debt. The average debt of someone from a public college is $22,000. Average debt at a private college is $32,000 and a whopping $39,000 at private for-profit colleges.

Depending on the major of an individual and the career they are aiming to get, one could make small payments and pay off the debt over time. However, factors like job availability, increased tuition, and loan rates make it difficult to pay off debt. That is why you see people who studied for four years working as waiters. Even people in the medical field are not safe from this. Doctors make a lot of money, and there is a demand for them, meaning it is a stable career. However, when you put the four years of regular college and then medical school, the price can stack up fast.

Debtors are seriously struggling, and that can be seen very clearly. For example, out of the people who took out loans from the government, 40% are not making their payments or are behind in their payments. What this equals to is 22 million people owing 200 billion dollars and the likelihood that a good chunk of those people may never be able to pay all of it. You should note however, that this is just one part of the student debt problem.

There are many things that you can do now in order to ensure that you don’t fall into debt in the future. For instance, going to community college for the first two years, getting scholarships, and getting subsidized (government pays your interest under certain conditions) loans.

Debt is a serious thing and should be a priority for the government to fix. I will not pretend to know of a solution but there will have to be major reform, much more than just electing someone like Bernie Sanders to office, in order to alleviate the burden that affects so many hard working people.