The US could afford a few tricks before that. Better benefits, for example. Maybe a vet program. Maybe recruit graduates and offer them a career in what they actually studied and their loan payments covered while in the military or wiped after 15 years service. If I was $250k in debt with an engineering degree working minimum wage answering phones all day and the military promised me a commission with the engineers, I'd be tempted. I wouldn't do it now out of principle but when the military offered me a place at officer school to do what I did my degree in, I went to the recruitment place and got a leaflet. (Luckily, I saw the light before signing up.) And I live in a marginally more civilised place than the US.