Not surprised students who foolishly ran up student loans they can't pay also mistakenly believe the government will bail them out. Especially those who did it while the government was bailing mom and dad out of that ridiculous mortgage on the family home.

Student loans should be offered on the basis of every loan - car, mortgage, etc - you can borrow what you can realistically repay. Require students to declare a major, then limit loans based on a formula incorporating the average first 5 years salary for that major. Would engineering majors be able to borrow more than teachers or music majors? Yes. As it should be in a sane world. Yes, colleges might have fewer music majors, or figure out how to cut the cost of degrees not in demand on the job market, or subsidize with institutional scholarships. And students who have no idea what they want to do with their lives would try to figure it out with a job or community college, not a running tab that will haunt them into retirement.