US heading (or in) a quagmire? (student loan, 2014, expenses, debt)

[Augiec]

I'm normally a fairly optimistic person, but I keep hearing more & more about how consumer spending is a ever larger part of our economy. At the same time, I'm seeing all sorts of signs indicating how unsustainable things are:

1) I'm hearing horror stories from my staff of young people who made less than ideal choices in regards to college degrees & are now working menial jobs just to have something on their resume.
2) Student loan debt topped $1 Trillion not too long ago
3) Increases in the cost of housing & other expenses (despite the official inflation rate being very low)

Heck, even the Atlantic is starting to put the pieces together:

Are Student Loans Really Killing the Housing Market? - Derek Thompson - The Atlantic


So: kids graduating are saddled with more debt, jobs that pay less, and rising costs of living; how are we going to grow our way out of this?

Should I start looking abroad for better opportunities for my young children? I doubt I would, but it's really getting quite scary out there.

[cdelena]

Government manipulation of economies and broad sweeping questionable policies have been done everywhere in the world, some more some less, some good some not. The last fifty years have been a giant experiment in central management by politicians that are simply not qualified or capable.

It is a dice roll as far as good opportunities... the US has the size and resources to survive and even thrive but will only do well with much less government interference.

Worry is appropriate... answers are elusive.