In 2010, the author wrote an essay, "The New Indentured Educated Class," for "The New England Journal of Higher Education." This piece was pivotal in raising public awareness about a new group of Americans, an enormous group of people--educated and deeply in debt. At that point, few were talking about the student loan debt crisis, aside from the author and a couple of others. However, things have changed--politicians are not only openly acknowledging the crisis, but talking about it as a real issue in the 2016 presidential election. Newspapers publish articles on the topic daily. That is because outstanding student loan debt is now a whopping $1.3 trillion, and over 43 million Americans carry that debt burden. In this article, the author argues that almost every American is affected by this crisis. In the very least, it affects 1 in 4 Americans, and in ways that make life quite difficult, both financially and emotionally.