Do you have too much debt?
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During their first week in college, freshmen receive on
the average eight applications for credit cards. Credit
card companies target college students because they
have a lifetime to acquire debt—and pay it off. The
average freshman in 2008 finished the year with a
credit card debt of $2,038, while graduating seniors
owed $4,138—up 44 percent since 2004. Many stu-
dents cope with debt by cutting expenses, taking jobs,
or skipping school, while some do not cope. A 2006
documentary film described the plight of two college
students in Oklahoma who, awash in credit card debt,
committed suicide.
Many college students incur debt responsibly, most
often to pay for college. In 2008 the average college
graduate owed $23,000, mostly for college loans. But
this investment usually pays off—literally: College gradu-
ates on average earned $57,200, while individuals with
only a high school education earned $31,300.
Many of the founders of the nation were also entan-
gled in personal debt. In 1798 Robert Morris, the financier
who had devised the funded debt to pay and equip
George Washington’s army, was imprisoned for personal
debt. He languished in the Prune Street debtor’s prison in
Philadelphia for three years. Thomas Jefferson, on paper