It's possible in most situations. Most people have federal student loans—which are the ones that aren't easily discharged—and as long as you are on an income-based repayment program, the loans are forgiven after 25 years.

You are basically given two choices as an average person after you hit over $150k debt: 1) Spend 5-10 years throwing your life away to a job to try and grind away your debt; or 2) Work a low-income job for 25 years and spend your time more meaningfully.

Low income doesn't mean no income, it just means you don't get to participate in consumer capitalism the way those without debt do. You can fault people for their lack of foresight, but honestly if I was in that situation I'd probably opt for option #2 as well.

For those with private student loans, the options are much less; usually deferment or forbearance, usually short-term.

Most people who have/had private loans did so because they didn't qualify for FAFSA to determine that their federal loans covered room and board, but also didn't have enough saved to offset this cost. I think a lot of people are forgetting that, and a large group of people fall into that category.

Private loans are much easier to get discharged or reduced through bankruptcy though. Something like close to 50% are. And in some states the statute of limitations for collections of private student loans is under 5 years.

I wasn't aware of that. I assumed the no-default rules a la Federal loans.