"Student loan debt in the U.S. now exceeds $1 trillion, more than the nation's credit-card debt. This timely book explains how and why student loans evolved, the concerns they've raised along the way, and how each policy designed to fix student loans winds up making things worse. The authors, a father and son team, provide an intergenerational, interdisciplinary approach to understanding how, over the last 70 years, Americans incrementally, with the best intentions, created our current student loan disaster. They examine the competing interests and shifting societal expectations that contributed to the problem, and offer recommendations for confronting the larger problem of college costs and student borrowing in the future"-- Provided by publisher.

Good intentions and wasted brainpower: the first student loan mess -- Disillusionment and deadbeats: the second student loan mess -- Outrage and crushing debt: the third student loan mess -- Dread and the for-profit bubble: the fourth student loan mess -- What's next? Prospective student loan messes -- Beyond making messes?.