JumpCrisscrossStudent Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/business/student-loans-abroad-default.html
I'm Canadian, but I know someone from the US who did this. She's living in Paris, moderately successful in academia and as far as I can tell, completely happy to never return to the US. Her family goes to visit her in Europe once in a while.
Perplexing.
> moderately successful in academia and as far as I can tell
Why not pay your debts then? I totally understand debt forgiveness for extenuating circumstances (and imo, it's a crime that student loan debt can't be forgiven, and the interest rates are often predatory—especially in the case of med school and law school), but this just sounds like stealing with extra steps.
I may be wrong but I read “moderately successful in academia” as meaning: they have succeeded in gaining some social capital but make little money
Sorry - didn't mean to be vague but I don't want to out my acquaintance too much. She has a good job in STEM. I think she does fine for herself and I would have thought her capable of paying the loan.
Yeah. I don't know the extent of her debt or current income, but she went to an in-state school for a STEM degree, she's not someone who got a useless degree from an overly expensive school. She definitely doesn't seem to regret her decision, whatever the financial or moral considerations.
As I said, I'm a bit perplexed.
[dead]
Which part perplexes you?
That they're Canadian.
But jokes aside, I'm curious too. Nothing there seems too extravagant, people move abroad all the time. Maybe it then takes them 30 years to realize they didn't have it so bad after all and move back. I'm not speaking for the US here specifically, but more generally. Those longer term stories I think are more interesting.