Review of DEFAULT: The Student Loan Documentary

"DEFAULT, over the course of its half-hour running time, charts the the broken careers, relationships, and lives that crippling student loan debt leaves in its wake. For those unfamiliar with the true scope of this crisis, DEFAULT is a great introduction that interweaves facts and statistics with the very human costs involved, told through at times gut-wrenching personal stories."

"However, this film stumbles a bit in terms of its analysis — and downright falls over in terms of its call to action. For example, a key question overlooked (and one that might have pointed to more interesting action possibilities) is "why is tuition rising so fast?"

"...  I would've enjoyed a bigger picture analysis, politically and economically. Debt has long been understood as a mechanism of control to wield against the poor and working class, and speculation bubbles are an inevitable expression of finance capitalism's drive for capital accumulation and balance sheet growth."

"The action points suggested are very rudimentary, and not seriously considered or studied."

"And then President Obama is shown at the very end, speaking at a State of the Union address about affordable college and the most incremental of student loan reforms. That snippet is an all too-fitting symbol of the disastrous results of relying on the standard liberal model of social change."

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