With U.S. student loan debt growing $3,055 per second, grads would sell an organ to pay off debt

As of July 2015, the student loan debt total in the United States stands at $1.3 trillion, and that number is growing exponentially. In fact, according to the Federal Reserve, student loan debt is going up $3,055 every second.

Today, around 40 million Americans have some kind of student loans, while 70 percent of students exit college with an exorbitant amount of debt. The graduating class of 2015 is the most indebted ever. On average, graduates have about $28,000 in student loans.

Indeed, this has left many adult millennials without any significant options. All they can do is work at low-paying jobs and gradually pay off the debt. They aren’t getting anywhere, though, considering that just one-third of borrowers are paying down the debt.

Millions of grads are delaying any major adulthood decisions, like getting married, having children, buying a home and preparing for retirement.

Much of the substantial increase in the cost of tuition is because of the federal government’s involvement in post-secondary education. By guaranteeing student loans, universities and colleges are able to keep tuition fees at all-time highs and have zero incentive to cut costs.

With that being said, what would you do to pay off all of your student loan debt in one swoop? That’s what personal finance site MyBankTracker asked about 200 of its users, who were a median age of 32 and had an average student loan debt of $34,500.

Some of the questions consisted of: Would you be willing to turn your life into a reality TV show? Would you sell an organ? What about selling half of your possessions — would you do that? Would you ingest a drug that has not been approved by the FDA? And would you sign up for active duty?

Here are the responses, and one of them will surprise you very much:

– 55 percent would embrace a life reality television lifestyle to pay off student debt.

– 43 percent would get rid of half of their possession to pay off their debt.

– 38 percent would take part in a questionable health study.

– 32 percent would sign up for active military duty.

– 30 percent would sell an organ if it meant they’d have zero student loan debt.

There you have it, some grads would actually part with an important organ to pay off their student loan debt. This is how desperate some have become. Now, this is a very minuscule and unscientific poll, but it does shed some light on how many graduates feel shackled and have no way out.