How much debt to you have?

Recently a group of us got together to have dinner and as conversations go these days we all started talking about how much debt we have. It seemed like a good idea at the time to add it all up and see what the sum total of our financial woes was.

The dinner party included six people with an accumulated debt of $125,000. This number included both school loans and credit cards.

Surprisingly, credit card debt was pretty low amongst the crowd. It seemed everyone had taken an active role in keeping their credit card debt low. On the other hand, no one was able to avoid the ridiculous amount of student loans necessary to get through school. At least one could say that it was worth the debt for the opportunity to finish school and work in the field for which you studied.

That would be true if everyone had finished school and/or had a job they were trained for. One person had finished school but could not land a job, so now works in retail. Another could not complete schooling because funding for the field of study had been cut and no programs are hiring students. Two students went to both community colleges and private universities trying to offset the cost of their education, but neither were finished with their degrees.

The cost of education, private and public, is one that impacts nearly everyone. We have become a debter's nation, with significantly higher percentages of recent graduates with higher credit card and student loan debts -- not to mention higher percentages of graduates unemployment or employed outside of their area of study.

It is time that we start knocking at the doors of the administration, of the Sallie Mae's and JP Morgan Chase's and tell them that we have the right to an education. No more should we drown ourselves in debt to become baristas and shop clerks.