New Study Reveals That Students Are Willing To Go To Extremes To Get Rid of Their Debt

What would you do to get rid of your student debt? It’s like that commercial jingle, the one about the Klondike Bar, except with less ice cream because you can’t afford such luxuries.
If you’re a student—or a recent graduate—I don’t have to tell you that student loan debt is a serious, crippling problem. But, here are the facts: one in seven people in the United States has debt from paying for their education. Here’s another: a recent survey conducted by American Student Assistance (ASA) found that, “those with student debt are delaying decisions to buy a home, get married, have children, save for retirement, and enter a desired career field because of their debt. This downward spiral has a cascading impact on the nation’s economy as the generation charged with investing in the nation’s future is delaying their lives because of student debt.”
It’s easy to see why some would be willing to go to extremes to have such a burden removed, but the question is, how extreme? For example, would you be willing to let Mike Tyson punch you in the face? Desperate times calls for desperate measures, and a lot of people have no problem getting their jaw broken by a legend.
In an online survey, Lendedu polled 513 graduated student loan borrowers and found that, yes, 56.73 % would take a punch from Mr. Tyson, if it meant they’d have no student loan debt left—because, really, if there’s anything higher education teaches you, it’s that immediate pain is well worth future reward.
The rest of the poll offers up other such options to paying off your debt. It’s like a game of “Would You Rather?” hosted by the Jigsaw killer.
For the survey, 61 % of responders were female and 39 % were male. They ranged in age from 22 to 61 and had an average of $31,762 in student debt. All graduated from a four-year college.
Here are some of the results:

• 57.89 % would give up all social media for life
• 57.11 % would give up coffee for life
• 56.14 % would abstain from alcohol and drug use for life
• 35.67 % would give up texting for life
• 28.07 % would name their first born daughter Sallie Mae
• 20.47 % would wear the same outfit, every day
• 6.47 % would cut off their pinky finger—clearly, least useful digit
• 4.09 % would contract a random sexually transmitted disease (STD) for life

“Unfortunately,” writes Lendedu, “none of these options are currently available under the Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.”
Someone needs to make some changes.