Go behind-the-scenes on how producer Alvin Chang created the data viz for this video with our Video Lab Extra: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g9J6lNaoyNe1mXU.html

College in US has become a business, not a service

Vox - Can you please give a hug to your graphics department?

Son: Dad why do I need to apply for student loan? Dad: So you can go to college Son: Why do I need to go to college? Dad: So you can get a good job Son: Why do I need to get a good job? Dad: So you can pay off your student loan

Or, you can go to the root of the problem. College tuition prices growing exceptionally faster than inflation rates for seemingly no reason. This is the source of young adults being blocked out of colleges, not loans to work around the instance price.

I'm from Europe, always had free education, no one here understands why you pay millions of $$ to study. It's simply ridiculous.

You should have shown that most of us actually have negative net worth... Very negative... Even if we have a good salary, it ends up being just enough to pay debt and live

*_laughs in European_*

This country's intellectual talent is still wasted.

It's funny how money is only ever really an issue when it comes to helping average americans

*Nice, next time do healthcare in the US*

It's interesting to me how information colleges teach is more widely available now than ever, and yet the costs of education are getting worse and worse. I've learned more watching youtube videos than talking to my professors who really would rather go home than explain how integrals work.

American students: uhh i have all this debt from university Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland: allow us to introduce ourselves

visualizing my student debt is a useless endeavour because my peasant tears make everything blurry

*7 trillion on Middle East wars* Media: *crickets* *10 trillion + bailing out Wall Street* Media: ... Bernie proposes canceling student debt Media: WOAH THERE PAL

"Sputnik satelite" Satelite satelite

That's what you got when companies run a country.

I love how this video has graphs that make it easier to process the data and understand the nuances of student debt better.

In scandinavia we get payed for taking an education.

Okay, but imagine how much the economy would benefit from literally MILLIONS of well educated Americans suddenly having more financial freedom, and thus, being much more able to contribute to the economy

This video killed youtubes video compression system. Tip: It hates particles

In Australia the government regulates maximum university prices (as only a couple universities are private but also sets their max prices), gives interest-free loans up to a $100k cap, and gives welfare payments to students depending on their own and parents income

I think it would be far smarter to just make colleges/university’s have to lower their tuition cost as apposed to just giving students the money required to go to college/university. You not only waste less money but also reduce the risk of students wasting money by flunking out of school/quitting.

for decades: education stays cheap goverment : no, we wanna help you by making it more expensive so you are addicted to us

Bernie: *snaps fingers* Student Debt: I don’t feel so good...

I feel like these videos also never take into account Parent Plus Loans, which usually end up being 3-4x more than the loans taken out by the student, it's just not under their name. However, most underprivileged students also have to pay for this once they get out of college, as there's no way for their parents to procure hundreds of thousands of dollars for their kids student loans. It's truly like taking out a mortgage.

Before the 1960s most state colleges free. Heck until the 1980s most community colleges were free.

It amazes me when I hear people say “No one told them to go to college, they knew what they were getting into” or “It’s their fault for getting a liberal arts degree”...there are so many people who graduated college in fields that at the time we assumed would be in high demand in four years(medical, business, etc.) but when they graduate there’s not many well paying jobs available for thousands of recent college graduates with the same degree, that’s the problem. Also, for those saying we knew what we were getting ourselves into have you never taken into account that maybe we didn’t REALLY know what we were getting ourselves into at 18 years of age? Since grade school it’s always been about getting good grades so that you can get into a good college and therefore get a job. Most people at 18 really dont think when it comes to college we just know it’s something we’ve been told our whole lives we have to do to be successful. Stop acting like you’ve never made mistakes when you were young that years down the line when you’re more mature you’ve looked back and wished you had done things differently. With the high tuition and even higher interest rates, no one chose to be in this kind of position. For those of you who had the resources and maturity to make the best decisions for yourself at 18 kudos to you but instead of getting in the comments and making it seem as if people wouldn’t pay back their debts if they truly could afford to do so, why don’t you become a mentor to seniors in high school to educate them, you could help change someone’s life instead of tearing others down for being young, naive, and trusting of their government.

I'm 19 about to be kicked out of my Parents house because I refused to go to university and put myself in debt. Working in McDonald's full time while paying about £2800 doing a course on software development in the evening and weekends which gives me 6 qualifications in technical skills that people actually care about. Instead of a piece of paper. Funny thing is that the most to the people who do my course have degrees computer science etc which just shows how useless it is and how it's a waste of time and money but my parents refuse to listen. Oh well. Wish me luck.

"Oh you're graduating soon. Have you considered starting a business?" "Yes... I've also considered acquiring a dragon pokemon. And those two seem like equally feasible endeavors."

Kudos to the person making these visualizations! Really, job well done man.

Student Debt needs a bail out or atleast a higher tax break and regulations on loans that reduce interest.

*All student debt visualized* “The Soviet Union launched Sputnik” Nah but really, in the Netherlands I only have to pay a €2000 a year, something I can easily earn with a part time job.

Curbing the financialisation of college is a major nessecary first step.

Hands down the best visualisation of statistics i have ever seen. Thank you Vox and especially your graphics department! :D

1:29 You just broke the youtube compression algorithm lol

The real solution: colleges actually charge reasonable prices. There. You're welcome.

Title about student debt Starts with USSR

America: WE NEED MORE DOCTORS! Med school: I need 300k for...Coffee.....yeah....

I feel like the statement that cancelling the debt would have no impact on those other people is false, as now the people with debt would have more money to spend monthly. I'm sure that would positively impact at least a portion of those who didn't go to college.

americans terrified of socialism is my new kink

Why has the ridiculously high cost imposed by universities never been highlighted or questioned?

This video was very informative. It didn't answer every question for me, but I definitely appreciate it. Plus, the visual aspect is really helpful. Great video overall :)

Meanwhile in Sweden I have gotten paid to study, so much in fact that I have been able to use it for down payment on my apartment.

"People should not be punished for getting a higher education at a competitive global economy" 😍

Can’t get student debt if you don’t go to college *[ insert picture of Roll Safe taping his finger to his forehead ]*

Me, European: What is this student debt everyone is talking about?

Choices I made to graduate with no debt: --Complete half the degree at a 2-year instituion (tuition guaranteed w/ grants) --Study intensely for the ACT to earn an academic scholarship --Choose a public state school (IN-STATE) --Always live modestly (with roommates) to lower rent --Continue to work part-time throughout the entirety of the degree (esp. during breaks) Wiping the debt for all undermines responsible students who minimized their debt or payed it back after completing their degree. Nobody is physically forced to sign for loans. We must be held responsible for our decisions and lifestyle choices. As long as there is a line of people blindly willing to sign up with loans at full price, schools will have no incentive to lower costs.

This video claims that cancelling student debt won't help those who didn't go to college and take debt on. This is not true. Everyone will benefit from the increased economic activity that debt forgiveness will create. Our economy is being held back by these debts preventing millions from fully participating in the economy. The money will go to food, housing, cars and the purchases that bring economic prosperity to all.

thank god I don't live in this broken system. I'm a med student from Germany. I got my place at university because of hard work and dedication. And this is how it should be. Work should pay off.

This feels like fixing a leaking faucet by drying if off. Its still gonna keep comming, and does not help the people who missed out and stayed behind to avoid it.

As someone that just graduated with a BS, this makes me sad

I guess I was very lucky to graduate from college with zero debt. I had a lot of scholarships that paid for my school.

Help us Mr. Robot, you're our only hope.

It had always seemed ridiculous to me why we have free college in Mexico, but not in the US...

Tl;dr: I'm a big dot with a PhD (lot of debt), but am significantly underemployed (near poverty line), and I'm not alone. My bigger concern is that there is a quality gap between elite universities (for the rich) and everyone else. Went to college on a 90% ride. Continued through a Masters on a 95% scholarship. I was good at school (really good). So my professors all encouraged me to get a PhD. In particular, they said I should look to particular programs in line with my studies outside the US. Don't worry, they said, you can still use US federal Aid for some of these top tier programs. I got a partial scholarship, but because schools in the UK charge significantly more to non-home students (which they should, I had not paid taxes there, nor would I afterward due to strict anti-immigration laws), I graduated with more debt than the value of my parents and my in-laws homes were worth combined. I'm one of those big dots. My PhD, however, is in the humanities. I am trained to do, primarily, one thing: teach and research (e.g. be a professor) and that's about it. Unfortunately, the other side of higher education is that the number of tenure track (or even just full time) teaching/research jobs has not even held steady. I found out, after the fact, that there was a crises in higher education jobs stretching back to the late 1980s. New jobs were not being created even as the number of PhD graduates went up. Still, I was told, not to worry, I went to a top tier school, I had excellent recommenders, I would be able to get a job teaching. In the 2010s, however, education began a shift that has only accelerated. Now, not only were new jobs not being created, but older established positions were being replaced by part time positions. It turns out, in terms of strict coverage, colleges and universities found out they cover the same number of courses that one full time faculty member taught with 2 or 3 part time faculty for about 1/3 the cost. As for-profit schools entered the scene, state funding went down, and competition for students went up, a business (rather than non-profit) mindset took hold that encouraged this. Teaching heavy schools began to phase out full time faculty. As a result, I have not found a professor job (other than some part time work here and there) and am significantly under-employed. My situation is not unique. This is problematic not just for me, but for all higher education. (In my current job, a professional role for a college, I do research on student success, for way less money (near poverty level for a family of 4) to help my much better paid superiors look good even though only about half of them understand how I do my research and make recommendations). The research is almost universal in showing that students have better outcomes when they have courses taught by full time faculty rather than part time or adjunct faculty (which, if it's permanently part time, why is it still called adjunct?). This is likely due to a variety of factors like professors able to devote more time to helping students or meeting with them regularly. Relationship building with faculty that is key to students returning. Faculty able to take an interest in students (especially low income students) so they can offer additional resources and help when a student starts to fade away (students don't typically come out an say they are having a problem, they just disappear from the college). There are so many more. To be sure this doesn't affect elite schools at all. The problem is that results in a wider gap in education between lower and middle funded schools and the top tier elite schools attended almost entirely by the nation's wealthy. The wealth gap between the richest and the poorest is exacerbated by a growing higher education gap. Students who are poorer tend to attend schools where the practice of having a majority adjunct/part time faculty is normalized, and thus tend to have an inferior education, are less likely to be successful in school, and significantly less likely to have an earning potential like that of students at elite schools or even students who graduated from the same institution 20 years ago. So students are even less able to improve their situation than they would previously have been. The result is that this means higher education is no longer a "ticket out of poverty." Rather it results in mild improvements that are not generational (as they were in years past) and simply help one generation stay slightly above. College is still worth it, but it no longer has the systemic long term impact that it used to have, so it's not as worth it as it used to be. This is directly attributable to the shift in part time professorship. (But I can't seem to convince my higher ups that this is better allocation of resources than some other new initiative, because the impact takes much longer and is, in many ways, harder to track).

Americans show your patriotism now where it’s actually needed. Cancel all student debts from now on. Education is a necessity. So that we don’t germinate any more climate change deniers.

In Denmark we just have a shitload of taxes so University and healthcare is free

This video has really good visual representation. Easy to understand.

2:25 :O woow, what kind of magic trickery was that transition?!

I think as a very first step is to pin all interest to 0%, so at the very least the debt never grows and inflation will lower the actual value.

For context, the F35 program in the military will cost 1.5 trillion alone

What this video doesnt show is the people with student loans that are considered middle class and lower middle class. Those people are struggling because so much of their income goes toward student loans and theier lesser counter parts who make less are doing much better because no loans, no degree but they are able to qualify for programs and assistance to help. Lower middle class with student loans are stuck.

I love how the subtitles are presented. Satisfying.

The problem of student debt was recognizable prior to 2008. Why haven't this issue and inflated tuition been given the same level of attention as the mortgage crisis and inflated housing costs? I conjecture the two might even have related causes.

The U.S government should just stop providing money to students. This would cause colleges to lower their prices to be affordable to college students and then the U.S government cancels all student loan debt.

We need to separate interest owed vs actually capital, and maybe consider forgiving interest accrued.

And just think how much worse it’ll all get when the next recession finally hits

Title: All student debt in the United States, visualised Me, an intellectual: *NOT STONKS*

It’s been 5 years since I graduated high school and so far all college has given me is thousands in debt and a mental breakdown. Some American Dream. (And now I’m $8,000 extra in debt for daring to get some help for my mental breakdown even though I allegedly have good health insurance)

Great visualization. I would love to see a video more about the consequences of canceling student debt. You kind of touched on it here that canceling the debt will not help most Americans who didn’t go to college. But what are the more widespread effects, to the economy, to higher education, etc.? Will taxes need to be increased? What will happen to the Dept of Education if all student debt is canceled? What are they doing with all that loan money anyway? I feel like nobody ever talks about these things...

What plugin or script did Vox use for this animation?

@Vox 1:17 video says "1.6 trillion" and shows the number. Subtitles says "1.6 billion".

Hope u gave your video editor a RAISE after this

It would be more interesting to know how much owed is from the principal versus accumulated interest. Just lower the interest maybe subsidize the loan for everyone while going to college and lower interest after graduating. That would probably ease the burden without needing to cancel the loans. The loan ain’t the issue it’s the occurred interest that makes it difficult.

Cancelling student loan is good, but not sufficient, they should come up with plans that would prevent the future generations from falling in debt

If any candidate can truly take away student loan debt, I will vote for them. Period. We shouldn't have to owe money for making a life, career, and a degree for ourselves.

IMO the thumbnail looks as if a city got snapped by thanos.

I'm more concern with Vox's computer rendering all the circles

In Argentina we have many state funded colleges in wich you don't pay anything to study (and they have a great academic level too), but getting a degree is quite bureaucratic and tortuous. After college, when you are job-hunting, state funded colleges carry way more merits because not only you got your degree, you also had the tenacity to go through all those bureaucratic hoops.

Let’s be clear... it’s not “cancel”, the debt is owed. This means the government (taxpayers) take over payments. The tuition has been paid to the university, but this is all a matter of who pays it back.

Aren't Millennials now officially a "working class citizens". Shouldn't we focus more on Gen Z.

Great video. Could use further elaboration of the last minute.. Maybe a stretch to two or three. Thanks

America is not a country. It is a Business.

I'm here to appreciate the beautiful infographic

In India my 3 years of undergraduate college costed me 3300 Dollars in total. Including tuition, food and residence.

Imagine agreeing to pay an institution for something then demanding someone who had nothing to do with your decision to pay for it

In New Zealand our government subsidises about 75% of University fees so it typically costs around $5000 per year. We also have interest free student loans (but there are minimum repayments that have to be made).

My history teacher (who grew up in the 60's) told us that he only had to work a summer job and was able to pay all of his college stuff for the year

As a high school student, I’m TERRIFIED of going to college and racking up thousands in debt for a degree which I may not even end up using.

Perhaps the US should consider changing the terms of the loans to match monthly payments to income level as they do in Australia. There has also been a proposal that would limit those payments to 20 years. This would provide debt relief to people whose income is not at the same level as those who paid for a professional degree but they would still have to pay their debt.

Those visuals are amazing.

College in the UNAM (México's City) costs less than 3 pesos. (1/6 of a dollar) But in the UANL (The farthest city from the economic center) costs around 500. And still, the success lays in your decisions and hard work. Although we are around 1/3 of USA population.

"Cancel" student loan debt? Isn't it more accurate to say that the burden to pay this debt would be shifted to the taxpayer?

Funny thing is that I got a loan ad when I clicked this.

how I feel towards college I’ll choose the one that offers me the best deal

"Socialism for the rich, Capitalism for the poor"

Best comment: 7 trillion on Middle East wars Media: crickets 10 trillion + bailing out Wall Street Media: ... Bernie proposes canceling student debt Media: WOAH THERE PAL !

See you guys in 3 years when KZfaq decides to recommend this to everyone

A bit off topic, but in reference to the graphics: "Mr. Sanders, I don't feel so good."