Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
Faced with crushing student loans and little ability to repay them, some Americans have taken to fleeing the country in order to escape their debt, according to CNBC‘s Annie Nova.
“It’s kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?” said 29-year-old Chad Haag, who relocated from Colorado to a jungle in India to avoid paying his $20,000 loan balance. “I’ve put America behind me,” said Haag – 9,000 miles away from home.
Today he lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. “I saw four elephants just yesterday,” he said, adding that he hopes never to set foot in a Walmart again. –CNBC
That said, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing – including finding acceptable loos to poo in. “Some toilets here are holes in the ground you squat over,” said Hagg, who added that he recently ate spoiled goat meat at a local restaurant, landing him in the emergency room. Still, he insists “I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans.”
“If you’re not making a living wage, $20,000 in debt is devastating,” said Haag, who struggled to come up with the $300 a month he owed upon graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in 2011. Hagg’s first postgraduate job was working on-again, off-again hours unloading trucks and constructing toy rockets on an assembly line.
Chad Haag left for India in 2018 to escape student debt from CNBC.
While there is no official data on how many people have fled the United States to get out of student debt, there’s ample evidence that people are heading for the hills based on Reddit posts, Facebook groups, and financial advice doled out on various websites.
“It may be an issue we see an uptick in if the trends keep up,” said Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
With outstanding student debt projected to exceed $2 billion by 2022, the average graduate owes around $30,000, up from an inflation-adjusted $16,000 in the 1990s. As CNBC notes, salaries for those with new bachelor degrees have remained virtually flat over the last several decades.
In Hagg’s case, after his stints at the toy factory and loading trucks, he went back to school to pursue a master’s degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder, after which he tried his hand at being a low-paid adjunct professor.
Haag had some hope restored when he landed full-time work as a medical courier in Denver, delivering urine and blood samples to hospitals. However, he was disappointed to find that he brought home just $1,700 a month. He had little money left over after he paid his student loan bill. He couldn’t afford an apartment in the city, where rents have been rising sharply. He lived with his mother and rarely went out with friends.
“I couldn’t make the math work in America,” Haag said. –CNBC
Last year, Hagg married an Indian citizen who teaches at a local college. He is currently living on a five-year spousal visa.
