By Futurist Thomas Frey
The Question Nobody’s Asking About Education Debt
What if instead of borrowing $100,000 to get a degree that might not lead to employment, young people could access government-backed capital to build businesses that create employment?
The student loan system is fundamentally broken—$1.7 trillion in outstanding debt, crushing burdens, declining value from degrees. But the infrastructure exists. The lending mechanisms work. What if we redirected this entire system toward the actual most important job of the future: entrepreneurship?
Let me be clear upfront: this is a half-baked idea. I’m not presenting polished policy. I’m throwing out a concept that needs serious refinement, critique, and development. What follows has gaps, potential problems, and unresolved questions. I’m sharing it because the core insight feels valuable, even if execution needs substantial work.
Why Entrepreneurship Becomes Essential
Traditional employment is dying faster than new job categories emerge. AI and robotics eliminate positions across cognitive and physical labor simultaneously. For most people, the future job is one you create yourself—not because entrepreneurship is glamorous, but because traditional employment opportunities won’t exist at necessary scale.
Yet we have no systematic way of training entrepreneurs. Business schools teach management of existing organizations, not creation of new ones. We’re training people for jobs that are vanishing while the most important economic skill—entrepreneurship—remains self-taught through expensive trial and error.
How This Might Work (With Many Questions)
Eligibility: Any 18-year-old qualifies for government-backed startup capital up to $7,500 per month for up to 24 months.
Critical shift: This money is not meant to be fully used. It’s safety net and credibility signal, not primary funding. Young founders are explicitly encouraged to withdraw as little as possible and transition to customer revenue or outside investment quickly.
Requirements:
- Complete 100 hours of startup education videos
- Enroll in approved incubator providing workspace, mentorship, and accountability
- Submit business concept and validation plan
- Monthly reporting on progress and alternative funding efforts
- Demonstrate genuine business-building activity
The reputation mechanism: Founders using minimal government funds before achieving revenue build credibility. Those maximizing withdrawals without market traction signal poor judgment. The system naturally selects for capital-efficient, market-validated founders.
Repayment: Like student loans, you cannot escape repayment. This ensures skin in the game and prevents abuse.
Why Minimizing Government Funding Is the Goal
In the AI era, startup costs have plummeted. You need subscriptions ($100-500/month), basic tools, and workspace—not six figures. A genuinely promising business should achieve customer revenue within 3-6 months.
The culture becomes: “I’ve only withdrawn $15,000 and we’re already at $5,000 monthly revenue” rather than maximizing government funding. Frugality, resourcefulness, and rapid market validation become status markers.
Why Incubators Would Emerge Rapidly
Government funding access for enrolled members means thousands of incubators would launch immediately. Economics are compelling: $500-$1,500 monthly membership × 50 members = $25,000-$75,000 revenue providing workspace, mentorship, and community.
Quality emerges through competition. Bad incubators produce failed businesses with high government funding usage. Good ones produce capital-efficient founders transitioning quickly to market-based funding. Success metrics become transparent: time to revenue, funding used, capital raised, survival rates.
What I’m Uncertain About
The fraud problem: How do we prevent sham incubators and fake businesses extracting maximum funds? Current student loans are rife with fraud—how does this avoid the same?
The equity problem: Does this disadvantage people from poor backgrounds who need more support? Does it favor kids with existing safety nets?
The failure problem: What happens to people who try genuinely but fail? Do they get crushing debt like bad student loans? Where’s the compassion for honest failure?
The oversight problem: Who approves incubators? Who monitors compliance? How do we avoid creating massive bureaucracy?
The repayment problem: If someone builds modest-income lifestyle business, do they spend decades repaying debt? How is that better than current system?
The cultural problem: Does this only value fast-growing tech startups? What about slow-growth businesses providing good living?
Why This Matters Now
Three trends converge: Student debt crisis reaching breaking point. AI-driven employment displacement accelerating. Startup costs at historic lows making minimal capital viable.
We need entrepreneurship training infrastructure. The student loan system provides foundation. But I don’t have this figured out. Massive gaps remain.
I Need Your Input
What am I missing? Where does this break down? What problems am I overlooking?
How would you fix it? If the core concept has merit, how would you structure it better? What safeguards would you add?
Does this solve the right problem? Am I addressing the actual issue or solving for the wrong thing?
Who does this help and hurt? Help me think through equity implications.
What’s the political path? How does this ever get implemented?
I don’t know if this idea is brilliant or terrible. Probably somewhere in between—directionally correct but executionally flawed. What I do know: current system is broken, entrepreneurship training is essential, and we need better solutions.
This is my half-baked contribution. Now I want yours. Share your thoughts, criticisms, and improvements. What am I getting right? Wrong? How would you make this work?
Related Articles:
The $1.7 Trillion Question: Why Student Loan System Is Fundamentally Broken https://www.forbes.com/student-loan-debt-crisis-solutions/
Startup Costs at Historic Lows: Why AI Era Enables Lean Business Building https://www.fastcompany.com/declining-barriers-entrepreneurship/
The Last Economy: Why Our Current System Collapses When Intelligence Becomes Cheaper Than Labor https://www.impactlab.com/2026/01/02/last-economy-system-collapse-intelligence-cheaper-labor/
