Put yourself in the shoes of a 32-year-old American. You graduated from college in the spring of 2009, loaded up with student-loan debt because that’s what the system encouraged you to do.

You walked into the worst recession since the Great Depression, which prevented you from moving onto the professional track you were promised. For a decade, you scratched and clawed to catch up, perhaps putting off getting married, buying a car, buying a house and having children along the way. By the beginning of this year, with the economy...