A bankruptcy lawyer explains how student loan debt is often just the first domino:
Here’s what practical experience has taught me in the thousands of bankruptcy cases I’ve filed for clients: student loan debt perpetuates bankruptcy filings.
A pattern is emerging. Clients making $25,000-$40,000/year with student loans see us every decade to file a new Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. Why? They take out predatory loans and use credit cards to stay afloat. Why? Because the ~$50,000 in student loans wasn’t discharged in the last bankruptcy. There are limited programs to get around the debt temporarily, but most are stuck in the cycle.
In a sense, the predatory loans and credit cards they are taking out again and not paying are paying the student loans they’re stuck with (i.e. the money being paid on the student loans is offset by dischargeable debt they later take bankruptcy for to stay afloat). It’s a vicious cycle.
There are a number of bad reasons to not discharge student loan debt, but there are no good reasons. Literally nothing good is going to come of trying to squeeze even more blood from those particular stones.