The idea of a 'debt strike'- an organized mass refusal to repay loans, mostly student loans- has been floating around left wing circles for a while. The feasibility of organizing and carrying out something like this seems questionable, but for the moment let's roll with it.

Suppose, hypothetically, that this were to actually happen. Every singe american with an outstanding student loan, at once, refuses to pay their student loans. What would the consequences of this be? Over 10% of the American population have outstanding student loans, so I doubt the consequences of this would stay localized. I can't find specific numbers on who actually owns the debt, but it seems like part of it is 'owned' by the government itself and part of it is privately owned but government insured. Banks and the government alike have wide latitude to get their money back- wage garnishing, asset seizure, just breaking in the door and taking shit- but we are talking about >10% of the entire US population. The usual tactics are infeasible at this scale.

"If you owe a hundred dollars, you have a problem. If you owe a hundred million dollars, the bank has a problem."

Obviously this is going to cause some kind of 'reverse bank run' and a lot of financial institutions are going to go down in flames, but anything more specific? What would the response to this kind of mass default/refusal from the government and financial institutions? Would the government even be able to bail out all the banks on this scale without some other horrific consequence?

What would this kind of financial meltdown in the US have in the outside world?

If your in an apocalyptic mood, would there be any interesting/horrifying dynamics if other classes of debt- credit cards, mortgages, ect- were to do the same thing instead?