The last time I was in NYC, I was at a sushi bar eating dinner.

There was a woman next to me at the bar who kept looking over at me, so I knew she’d talk to me soon if I didn’t step away. I was feeling remarkably social for me so I stayed.

About a minute later she did indeed look at me and ask, “Is that one good?”  as she pointed at something on my plate. Turns out she was a dancer and dance instructor in NYC. Twenty-five years old.

We talked a little about our lives. She was remarkably candid. She said she was poor, struggling, and had many student loans. I asked her if she was able to pay them off.

She said, “No, I stopped paying them and don’t plan to ever start again. There’s no way I can pay $80,000 in loans with any job I’ll ever have.”

Later I paid my tab and left, but I think about her from time to time as that story is going to become increasingly common.

We’re creating an underclass in this country. It doesn’t matter if it’s deliberate or accidental, conspiracy or no – it is what is happening.

Some people will criticize her for the very act of being a dancer. But understand this: not everyone can be or wants to be an engineer, which is one of the few employment reasons it is worth going to college for these days.

I’d argue that the world needs dancers just as much as it needs engineers, Hell, perhaps more.

Anyway, no matter what the world needs, I fail to see the wisdom of creating another entire class of people who are basically barred from participating in regular society by debt they can neither pay back nor discharge in bankruptcy.

No matter what you think about the morality of it all, this is good for no one; not for society, not for the graduates, and not even the moral scolds who think that dancer should be punished in perpetuity for perceived mistakes.