The issue of student debt has been taken up by the Occupy movement in recent years — actually, it’s been assumed by a branch of that group named Rolling Jubilee. Along with advocating for legislative easement of student loans, Rolling Jubilee also buys student debt and erases it.

In response to these calls for action against student debt, some writers and commentators from older generations are crying for an end to the “sob stories” of student debt.

I am writing this column because this sort of snobbery makes me mad. I’m mad, just like Howard Beale proclaims in the movie “Network”: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” I call on my fellow students to get angry.

We should be angry. I don’t know what to do about the student debt crisis, but I know, just as Beale professes, that first you’ve got to get mad — “You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being and goddamn it my life has value.’”

This year, student loan debt exceeded $1.2 trillion nationally. As a right of passage to the promised land of employment, we must assume this great burden. Many of us will carry this burden for the rest of our lives and we can’t even discharge the debt in bankruptcy.

Our future job prospects depend on education. Regardless of whether we get our dream job or not, we will always have that haunting debt following us. Oh and good luck if you end up in a low-income bracket.

We hear the horror stories and witness students slowly losing their grasp on the American dream — whatever that means anymore — and in response we see many legislators simply shrugging their shoulders saying, “Not my problem.”

It’s your problem if you want to keep speaking about the prosperous future of our country. We millennials are searching for employment now and what do we see? A decimated job market left in shambles because many of those in the generations before us couldn’t get their act together. It’s no surprise that millennials feel as if they got the short end of the stick.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that, at least for the classes of 2013 and 2014, roughly 8.5 percent of college graduates between the ages of 21 and 24 were unemployed. The report also shows that 16.8 percent of new graduates are underemployed, meaning they’re working less than full time or they’re overqualified for their position.

So we’re told to get an education because it’s a requirement nowadays and saddle ourselves with massive debt, but then we’re warned, “Good luck finding a job.”

This should anger us. What should make us even more angry is that Republicans blocked attempts to allow students to refinance their loans to lower interest rates.

Let’s put this in perspective.

After graduation, we assume a plethora of costs and debts on top of our student loans. But then our university calls us, asking us alumni for more money. I had one such call this past summer asking me to contribute to a senior scholarship. The girl on the other end of the line kept haggling me — “Could you contribute $200? No? OK, how about $150? No? How about $100?”

I haven’t even graduated yet and I’m being asked to donate? I don’t have money, so leave me alone.

Tuition is just the tip of the iceberg. How about price gouging for textbooks? I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets pissed off when I have to buy a textbook for hundreds of dollars, only to have it gather dust on my bookshelf. The rental costs for textbooks are outrageous, too.

I can understand attempts to hedge against wear and tear, but how many times have we rented a textbook in horrible condition for the same ridiculous price? 

No thanks, I’ll go to the library instead and check it out. Oh, it’s already checked out and the student who has it gets to keep it until the end of the semester? No matter, I’ll check it out on course reserve. But I only get to use it for two hours at a time — that’ll be useful when finals rear their ugly heads.

Textbooks aren’t the only overpriced items. What about paying to take a required class that ends up being completely useless? How about our meals? It’s so much more cost effective to cook your own meal, but good luck cooking your own meals if you’re an underclassman living in the dorms.

When you’ve finally escaped the dorms, you then have to deal with your landlords. Now I have a pretty convenient setup at my own living space, but many of my fellow students have it bad. On many occasions, my fellow students shovel out a good chunk of their money to live in a shabby, incomplete living space where the appliances work at random times and the maintenance man or woman doesn’t arrive for a week after you’ve requested their assistance. Even then, whatever you asked to be fixed isn’t fixed.

Moving out? Did you make sure the apartment or dorm is spotless? Did you clean the vents? You didn’t clean the vents? That’s a $50 fine.

But hey, that’s business. As 1st Lt. Aldo Raine proudly claimed in the movie “Inglourious Basterds,” “Business is a-boomin’.”

Now we students can certainly do our part. We can stop spending money on so much alcohol for starters. We can be careful with our money and spend it on necessities only.

But the few pennies we pinch here and there amount to little in the broad spectrum of our loan repayment period. It comes as no surprise that students choose to spend so much money on alcohol. You might as well have a good time now before the debtors come knocking.

So tell me: Are you mad yet?