Dear next President,

This election is proving to be incredibly divisive for the whole country and no matter what the outcome of the election I’m certain that the country will be impacted for a very long period of time following the election. There is one issue which has been bothering me above all the others. This is the issue of student debt.

Our country is going through the biggest crisis in its existence and it is happening right under our nose. The significance of the student debt crisis is not only in the money that is involved but also the repercussions on the American economy. In total in the United States there is almost 2 Trillion total dollars of unpaid student debt. Let me say that number again, 2 TRILLION dollars. To put that number into perspective that is almost one tenth of the national debt, the cost of 444 Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carriers (the largest aircraft carriers on the ocean), one eighth of our national GDP, 2301495972 iPhone 7 pluses, and could cover the full cost of tuition to Stanford (including housing, textbooks, and general costs of living) for 29 million people.

Student debt can not be forgiven when you file for bankruptcy and many people go their whole life without being able to fully pay off their student debt which significantly impacts their quality of life. This means that many people can not file for other loans to buy a house or a car for example because their credit score it too low from this looming monster that is their student debt.

To make matters worst, predatory lending is rampant. Banks and loan agencies have been targeting students who are desperate for money so they can go get a college education, unfortunately most of the time these students are immigrants who need the money and they aren't fully aware of what they are signing up for as they are not reading between the lines.

But other than it being incredibly absurd that there are 2 trillion dollars of student debt in this country, this goes much deeper than just debt. This goes beyond just the price of college tuition and the rates on student loans, no this has a significant impact on even the job market. This is because when student go to college for a medical degree for example and want to go into geriatrics, they can no longer do this because having a career in geriatrics doesn't pay nearly as well as being a surgeon and if they were to go into geriatrics they may never pay off their student debt. As a result the job market is going to experience a very significant crisis in the next 20 years where people who work in geriatrics will still be in high demand but there won’t be the manpower to address the needs of everyone. While one might argue that a capitalistic economy will balance out to fix this issue by paying geriatric doctors more thus making it a more desirable profession, it is proven that this will not happen because jobs like geriatric doctors work through medicare or obamacare at fixed prices so their wages will not go up and we are back at square one.

So to recap we have a national student debt that is an embarrassment for a first world country to have, loans that are being targeted towards people who can never fully pay them off, and an economy built like a house of cards that can all be brought down with this problem being the card that the bottom that has the power to either bring it all down or support the whole economy.

Dear next president, I strongly believe that the future of this country will be significantly impacted by the way our government handles this national crisis and I trust that you will do what is best for this country and its citizens.

Thank you, Charles