The Student Debt Bubble Neoliberalism, The University, And Income Inequality

The 'student debt bubble' is an ideograph referring to the growing imbalance between the costs of higher education and the capacity of students to shoulder increasing debt burdens. This unsustainable condition is constructed by numerous stakeholders, who have dramatically resituated risks and rewards in higher education. The resulting debt bubble has multiple outcomes, including incremental efforts for reform at the federal level, ideological speculation by neoliberal bloggers, and vituperative assaults on higher education by state and local politicians. Following Kenneth Burke, we isolate the student debt bubble as network and rhetoric of motives.