I came across this article: "I live in a van down by Duke University" from salon.com (see link at the bottom for the article in its entirety). It's about a college student who decided that he would rather live in a van than take out exorbitant loans for grad. school. While I don't think this is the only way to avoid debt (I for example was able to find a company that sponsored me for my private school education), I found his points on greed, and American consumerism quite interesting. Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts:
"The more money I had borrowed, I came to realize, the more freedom I had surrendered. Yet, I still considered my education -- as costly as it was -- to be priceless."
"Willingness to go into debt, of course, isn't just confined to students; we're a nation in debt, collectively and individually. Going into debt today is as American as the 40-hour work week; or the stampede of Wal-Mart warriors on Black Friday; or the hillocks of gifts under a Christmas tree. An army of loan drones we've become, marching from one unpaid-for purchase to the next in quest of a sense of fulfillment that fades long before the bill arrives."
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