The student loan bubble that threatens to envelop America is a truly remarkable form of penury: your debt ruins you financially, and you may never even reap any benefits from it, thanks to our nation's horrible economy! And now, a second, even more devious peril is becoming clear: you could still be repaying your student loans when it comes time to help your kids get their own student loans.

New data from the NY Fed out this week shows that the bubble is continuing to grow terrifyingly, as expected. More people are borrowing; they're borrowing more money; and they're taking longer to pay it back. From Inside Higher Ed:

Despite the recent attention paid to recent college graduates burdened by six figures of debt and unable to find jobs, borrowers under 30 are doing better than most on paying back their loans. Only about 6 percent of them are more than 90 days late — the most serious form of delinquency — in making payments. Borrowers in their 40s, on the other hand, have a delinquency rate double that of their younger counterparts, at about 12 percent.

Please enjoy the American dream of education, which means, specifically, paying back your student loans until you reach retirement age. We'd especially like to highlight this passage, which does not bode well for anyone: "In some cases, retirees are finding their Social Security checks docked to repay delinquent federal loans, and parents are paying for their children's education while still grappling with their own student loans."

Once Social Security collapses this should all get extra fun.

[Inside Higher Ed. Photo: Shutterstock]