New report finds student debt burden has 'Disastrous Domino Effect' on millions of Americans - 新报告发现，学生债务负担对数百万美国人产生了“灾难性的多米诺效应”

Like many other student loan borrowers, Sean Vaillancourt of Phippsburg, Maine, found student debt has forced him and his wife to put their lives on hold year after year.

和其他许多学生贷款借款人一样，缅因州皮普斯堡的肖恩·瓦兰考特发现，学生债务迫使他和妻子年复一年地苟且而生。

“Student debt has been difficult for my marriage as we are both working mainly to pay off this debt,” Vaillancourt reported. “We are waiting to have children and buy a home because our combined student debt is more than a mortgage on a home. This debt has been a huge burden and point of contention throughout our last 10 years. ”

“学生债务使我的婚姻变得困难，因为我俩主要是为了偿还这笔债务而工作。”瓦兰考特说道，“我们得等待生孩子和买房这些事情，因为我们的学生债务加起来比房屋抵押贷款还要多。在我们过去的10年里，这笔债务一直是一个巨大的负担和争议点。”

“I often imagine what life would look like for us if we were not imprisoned by debt to our current life,” he added.

他补充道：“我时常想象如果我们没有被现有生活中的带宽所禁锢，那么我们的生活会是什么样子的。”

Vaillancourt is one of 7,095 borrowers who participated in a 50-state survey for the new report “Buried in Debt,” a national research study on the state of student loan borrowers in 2018 by the social impact startup Summer and the nonprofit organization Student Debt Crisis.

瓦兰考特是参与新报告“负债累累”对50个州调查的7,095名借款人之一，该报告是由社会影响创业公司“夏天”和非营利组织“学生债务危机”对2018年学生贷款借款人状况进行的全国性调查研究。

As total outstanding student loan debt soars past the $1.5 trillion mark – a figure that has tripled since 2005 – the new report examines the toll that unrelenting stress and financial strain from high monthly payments have taken on the lives of borrowers nationwide.

随着未偿还的学生贷款债务总额飙升至1.5万亿美元大关——这一数字自2005年以来增加了三倍——新报告审查了高额月供带来的无休止的压力和财务压力对全国借款人生活造成的损失。

Among those responding to the survey, borrowers owed an average of $87,500 in debt but made an average annual income of $60,000. (The average student loan debt nationwide is lower, with students from the class of 2016 carrying an average of $37,172 in student debt, according to 2016 statistics.)

在回答调查的人中，借款人平均欠债8.75万美元，但平均年收入为6万美元。(全国范围内的平均学生贷款债务较低，根据2016年的统计数据，2016届学生平均背负37172美元的学生债务。)

Faced with seemingly insurmountable debt, some borrowers have had to postpone marriage, buying a home and other life decisions indefinitely. “Regularly, I contemplate selling everything and living in my car to help free up money to pay off the debt sooner,” wrote a female respondent from Texas. She had had to put off having children, marrying or purchasing a home, she reported, due to the high costs of student debt repayment.

面对看似不可逾越的债务，一些借款人不得不无限期推迟结婚、买房和其他人生决定。“我经常考虑卖掉所有东西，住在车里，以帮助腾出钱来早点还债，”一位来自德克萨斯州的女性受访者写道。她说，由于偿还学生债务的费用太高，她不得不推迟生孩子、结婚或买房。

Natalia Abrams, executive director of Student Debt Crisis, says these stories are all too common. “We do get stories of borrowers who are struggling with the idea of suicide,” she said. “These are not people who tried to get rich quick; these are not people looking for a handout. It’s so disheartening that they have not only received no help from the current administration, it has been rolling back or eliminating programs designed to protect them.”

“学生债务危机”组织的执行董事娜塔莉亚·艾布拉姆斯说，这些故事太常见了。“我们确实收到了借款人的故事，他们正在与自杀的想法作斗争，”她说。“这些人不是试图快速致富的人，这些人不是在寻找施舍。他们不仅没有从本届政府那里得到任何帮助，而且还一直在缩减或取消旨在保护他们的计划，这让人非常沮丧。”

Student debt has had “a disastrous domino effect for millions of Americans,” according to Abrams. “The reality of the day-to-day crisis is staggering. The average borrower has under $1,000 in savings, and 80% cannot save for retirement. And we are not just talking young people – we’ve talked to many borrowers in their sixties who are still trying to pay off their student loans and are worried they will never have enough to retire.”

根据艾布拉姆斯的说法，学生债务已经“对数百万美国人产生了灾难性的多米诺效应”。“日常危机的现实是惊人的。借款人的平均储蓄不到1000美元，80%的人无法为退休储蓄。 而且我们不仅仅是在说年轻人——我们已经和许多60多岁的借款人谈过，他们仍在努力偿还学生贷款，并担心他们永远没有足够的钱来退休。”

The study found that student loan debt interfered in people's plans for marriage and families, leading 19% of respondents to delay getting married and 26% to put off having children.

研究发现，学生贷款债务干扰了人们的婚姻和家庭计划，导致19%的受访者推迟结婚，26%的受访者推迟生孩子。

Student debt also cast a shadow over everything from financial security to philanthropy. Overwhelming debt prevented 80% of borrowers from saving for retirement, 56% from buying a home, 42% from buying a car, and 50% from contributing to charity, according to the report. More than 85% said student loan debt was a major source of stress, and one in three said such debt is the biggest stress in their lives.

学生债务也给从财务安全到慈善事业的一切都蒙上了阴影。 根据报告，不堪重负的债务使80%的借款人无法为退休储蓄，56%的人无法买房，42%的人无法买车，50%的人无法为慈善事业做贡献。超过85%的人说学生贷款债务是压力的主要来源，三分之一的人说这种债务是他们生活中最大的压力。

Some of the other key findings from “Buried in Debt” include:

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– Nearly nine of 10 student loan borrowers are struggling to make payments. One in five borrowers reports they cannot make the next loan payment, and 44% say it would be a struggle.

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– Most borrowers reported they have less than $1,000 in their bank account, with high student loan payments partly to blame. Meanwhile, 58% of borrowers have taken a hit to their credit, with 10% failing a credit check for a job interview and 13% failing a credit check for an apartment.

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– Six percent of borrowers have had their Social Security payments or wages seized.

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– 18% report being in default on at least one student loan. This is the same percentage of borrowers federal agencies show are in default in the United States: 18%, or 8 million out of 44 million.

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– One in three of the borrowers report their student loan bill is higher than their rent or mortgage bill, with 65% saying their monthly student loan bill is more than their food budget for the month.

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–Nearly 40% of borrowers report they have been unable to achieve their career goals. As for becoming their own bosses, 28% said their student debt prevented them from starting a business.

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“These survey results reveal that student loan borrowers are on thin ice, and many are falling through without a lifeline,” said Will Sealy, the founder and CEO of Summer, a start-up dedicated to helping student loan borrowers repay their loans, in a written statement. “That means that millions of Americans face financial calamity, with all the limitations and stress that comes with it.” (Sealy formerly worked to protect students against predatory lenders as part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.)

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To make things worse, a troubling number of student loan companies have been prosecuted for predatory practices, such as abusive loan terms or convincing a borrower to accept unfair terms through deception or coercion.

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According to the report, nearly 60% of borrowers reported that their loan servicer has given them “confusing” or “unhelpful” advice about their loans. A quarter of the respondents had confronted a surprise additional fee from their servicing company, 57% had experienced unexpected demands after a sudden change in the loan servicer, and 42% had trouble negotiating a change to the repayment plan when they had financial hardships.

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“My loan are now almost equal to my rent, but once were nearly double my rent,” reported respondent Melissa Mills of Fort Worth, Texas. “I have begged multiple time for Sallie Mae to assist in lowering the monthly payments when a medical event happens, to which they have told me to quit my job and find a better-paying one.”

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Meanwhile, borrowers continue to default on student loans every 28 seconds, according to Student Debt Crisis – something that contributes to wage seizure and an ongoing spiral of debt that could hold back economic growth in the country. Small wonder that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested that borrowers should be able to discharge student debt in bankruptcy. And a study by Bard College’s Levy Economics Institute found that simply forgiving all student debt would boost the U.S. economy by $1 trillion.

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As the debate continues, a survey respondent from Pennsylvania identified as “Colleen” discussed her plight in a passage echoed by many others. “My student loans have prevented me from really living,” she wrote. “They stress me out more than I can explain. I pay and pay and pay, and the balance never seems to go down. Two of my loans have interest rates of 15%, and I have a third loan at 12%. I put almost two full paychecks towards my loans a month. It’s frustrating and honestly makes me feel completely defeated.”

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