Comment by mdorazio

I feel like it might actually be somewhat socially related as well. If people see that their friends/coworkers with large student loans are simply deciding not to pay and nothing horrible is happening to them while at the same time they are living more extravagant lifestyles with the student loan money they're not paying, that's an encouragement to not pay yourself as well. Pair this with the last administration taking steps to limit student loan repayment responsibilities (William D. Ford Direct Loan program), and it starts looking like maybe not paying your loans off is a pretty decent option.