You are looking way too much into the brother thing. Nowhere did you mention you had a wife so when telling someone you have a sister in law the most logical answer is you have a brother. Making a bad guy wasn't my point. My point was to show that there are many factors that determine why someone chose a certain lifestyle. I agree holding people accountable and having them take responsibility helps. However, while college was accessible for you it might not be for others. Absorbing a slightly larger cost now will pay off in the future. Reducing the cost of college means more people can attend and graduates have less money to worry about. All of these student loans are given to some loan agency that makes billions of dollars. When more people get better paying jobs, the cost can be spread among even more people. Splitting a $1000 debt between 5 people is a lot easier then splitting it between 2 people. I don't know about you but I would gladly pay higher taxes even though there are people like your sister in law. Because guess what? For every 1 of her there are 10-20 families that struggle and work hard to get by. Our economic system requires people to be at the bottom so to just forget them is ignorant. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.