Currently, average BA graduates have $28k in debt. $400 a month will pay that off in roughly 7 years, depending on the interest rate on the loan.
Frugal living (aka sharing a studio apartment with a spouse, not eating out or making luxury purchases) makes that entirely doable, probably faster. OTOH, living above your means or lots of unexpected expenses (pet health care, personal health care, car maintenance, etc) can put that out of reach pretty quickly as well.
That reminds me, I forgot the other big item. Housing costs have risen tremendously. (Yes, even in places that are not the biggest cities and/or on a coast.)
Basically: all the financial factors that changed, changed against new graduates. I'm struggling to think of a meaningful expense that is relatively lower now than it was in 1996, and I can't think of any.
I'm not saying it's not doable at all. I'm just saying that 20 years ago that $28k in debt might have been $14k instead, the $400 might have been $200, housing + other expenses would have been lower, and the graduate's relatively higher salary would have made the arithmetic easier.
Put another way: if one had to share a studio apartment with a spouse to make the math work in 1996, consider how much worse the picture would be today for e.g a person unfortunate enough to graduate college single and unable to share a studio with a spouse.
As you point out: there's less room for error now, which aligns with more people speaking and writing about the topic.
Well the problem is that while $400/month may seem to you like a reasonable amount of cash to set aside, for many people it's not possible. It's quite funny you chose $400 actually - since there was a story recently about how a substantial amount of americans couldn't get their hands on $400 in a one-off emergency (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/almost-40...) let alone once a month for seven years.
It is reasonably small for a debt load for someone who has a degree, has been frugal, and is on an income based repayment plan. Most americans are not those things, and too few are frugal.
I recall my grandfather being proud of only having a $25 electricity bill... granted, it was about 20 years ago, so prices were a bit lower, but it was for a two story house.
Edit- also, that $400 was chosen for the payoff period, not a minimum payment. I believe the minimum on that would be closer to perhaps $200 a month.
I'm guessing you own your own home, locked in around 20 years ago. You do know what rents are now, right? If you have to carry family health insurance, that's another huge chunk of money.
Well, I just showed that apparently it is not a reasonably small debt load for many! Even if you halved the amount - as I said, if people struggle to get $400 for one-off emergency expense would they be able to afford $200 each month? Also we have more than doubled the time to pay off the principle, I hope everyone's got a nice low interest rate!
I get what you're trying to say - you see that people have the latest iPhones, buying expensive sneakers and sharing pics of their exotic holidays. It's easy to then look at the student loan crisis, connect the dots and think "Ah, it's all these people with their iPhones, sneakers and holidays! I however have lived frugally, more people should live like me". Everyone's circumstances are different, but I think I can guarantee that student loan debt is a problem not because graduates go on to eat avocado toast every day (or whatever people are upset about this week) but simply because to attend higher education the costs in the USA are astronomically high and generally require either incurring huge quantities of debt or the enormous good fortune of coming from wealth.
Frugal living (aka sharing a studio apartment with a spouse, not eating out or making luxury purchases) makes that entirely doable, probably faster. OTOH, living above your means or lots of unexpected expenses (pet health care, personal health care, car maintenance, etc) can put that out of reach pretty quickly as well.