You're missing the point, though. Michael has no issue taking out loans upwards of $50-60k, if he's also putting flights to Vermont into his loans, rather than using a credit card or work two jobs to save up $1000 to fly to California and stay for a week or two somewhere cheap.
MFA Creative Writing degrees ARE vanity degrees. They have little to no return on investment. It's not like he's getting an MBA or going back to school for a teaching credential or second BA in a useful field. The likelihood of someone with an MFA making enough to make the debt from their degree worthwhile is one in a million.
Also, having gone to grad school paying my own way and with loans, the federal loan system you talk about is limited in the amount dispersed (like $5k a semester for most). It's likely that over half of Michael's degree is funded via the more high interest "private" loans dispersed by Navient. You still "get" them through FAFSA, but they are not the super low interest Perkins loans or Stafford loans.
Finally, when you take out student loans, you have to start paying them back right after you graduate. Even when I wasn't making a ton of money, I still had still pay SOMETHING. Good luck, Michael. If you think $100 Spirit Airline flights or $50 Greyhound tickets are a splurge, you are gonna love those $300-500+/month Navient bills!