For nearly 30 years, the United States has undergone a major transformation in terms of the shifting-burden of paying for nearly all of society's aims that are now squarely shouldered on the backs of an ever-shrinking middle-class. As real wages have shrunk, the costs of health care, child care and education have skyrocketed, causing an entire generation to amass an enormous amount of debt.

Student loan debt, unlike all other types of debt, is in a class all its own. Stripped of all consumer protections like bankruptcy, truth in lending laws, fair collections practices and statutes of limitations, those who had no choice but to amass tens, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt simply to obtain an education find themselves saddled for life with the albatross of debt from which there seems to be no escape. Consider the full implications of the following testimonial of one such student loan debtor:

I'm 58 years old and owe $68K to SallieMae at a 9% interest rate and a monthly payment of over $600. I'm single and live alone, am a low-paid social worker (even with a master's degree) and my agency has had a wage freeze for the past 2 years.

While I know there has been progress made toward student loan forgiveness, I've run into so many brick walls regarding this student loan mess that I can't allow myself to be too hopeful. I fear that whatever rules and regulations may be put into place that I, for whatever reason, will not qualify for any proposed programs.

I don't find too many people are sympathetic to my plight. They believe that if you borrow money, you're expected to pay it back. I've always felt that way myself. So asking for support, other than from others with outstanding student loan debt, has not made me feel any better. Just guilty for thinking that I deserve a break.

Knowing this post will be anonymous, I will tell you that thoughts of suicide used to run through my head in regard to this debt that started at about $40K and has grown to $68K since I finished graduate school in 1996. I don't feel quite as hopeless as I once did, but I still feel very stuck.

As President Obama said during his first State of the Union address: "In America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college."

Central to forgivestudentloandebt.com's is a belief that a well-educated citizenry is essential to our prosperity as a nation in the new, 21st Century economy. Quality education is the key to our ability to compete and succeed on a global scale and, to the extent we burden our workforce with enormous debts to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to excel, we limit not only our future economic choices, but our freedom in general. The future economic success of our nation is wholly dependent upon a workforce with the critical thinking skills necessary for innovation, entrepreneurship and prosperity and it is FSLD's core belief that, in order to unleash the full potential of those skills, we can no longer burden students with the ever-increasing costs of an education that benefits society in general, not just the students receiving them.

If you believe that anyone who wants an education should be able to receive one without having to shoulder a lifetime of debt, then please join the revolution at http://www.forgivestudentloandebt.com Join the more than quarter million Americans who are now waging the fight to rescue the middle class from the pitfalls of student loan debt.