Robert,  In re  your concerns:  1-  Is part of the, "that I have never missed a student loan payment, and I still owe more..." caused by the fact that the payment schedule and payment amounts are so low that they take so long to completely amortize, compared to other type of loans?

 2-  While "personal growth through education" is desirable, not all persons going into the trades to earn a living might agree with you.  Getting the skills needed to earn that living, often at much higher wages than many college grads earn in their chosen fields, is much wiser in their minds than having a brain full of useful book knowledge.  

3-  Many of those who are having a struggle with making payments because they "can't find jobs in their fields, or they don't pay what they expected", perhaps should have dedicated part of that "educational effort" into checking out the details of the fields they selected, before declaring a major and wasting student loan funds on bank rolling classes for jobs that will not support them properly.  Many majors seemed classy, but offer little income possibility.

4-  Perhaps more of the "education" provided to  students should be about WORKING during the time they are going to college, even if it would mean 5-6 years to graduated without a mountain of debt as promoted by the schools and government.  WORK seems to be a dirty word to many students.

Regards, 

George