@Primorge
To be honest, I wouldn't do the dangerous stuff anyway if the differences in pay are as unbalanced as Doric pointed out.
As with everything put upon citizens, it's just one big piss-take.

@Shane
Well, I still think you're a muppet for falling for it (Primorge too), you're just gonna have to accept that I'm not trying to be rude when I use the term muppet.

If you could turn back the clock I'm pretty sure you'd take a pass on student loans (or any loans).  But it's done now, and while it's not a solution as such, the only obvious thing about your situation is that whatever you do to get yourself out of debt, it needs to pay a fair bit, so I'm not surprised shelf-stacking won't cut it now that I know the amount.

I don't know the ins and outs of going into business in America, but I think that's probably the only way you'll get a decent amount of pay.  The problem with looking for a job is there's going to be millions of others looking for it as well, and even if you get one, you're effectively just another slave who's job can be filled by any other slave willing to work for the minimum slave-wage.

But if you start a business which has some uniqueness to it, I think the chances of success would be notably higher.
You have a reliable vehicle, so how about becoming a private investigator, be your own boss, you set the pay (Shane PI Ltd) ;-)

@Doric
Yeah, well if you make it back through the weeds I have a question that's right up your street from the sounds of it.  I need to know if there's an easy way to tell what specification of screw a CNC machine uses, short of dismantling the thing and sending off the screw.  It's easy enough to do but I don't want to screw-up the precision until I've used it to cut parts needed to extend it.

I've got one of those cheapo Chinese efforts, it's been sitting in the corner of the room ever since I bought it, gathering dust.  I wish I'd waited and got a bigger one, but I'm stuck with it now so I need to fit bigger screws to it to give me a bigger machine.  I have to order the same spec of screw otherwise it won't fit the part it runs through, and I'd like to avoid dimantling it for now.  There's all sorts of weird spec and numbers for them, and it being Chinese, they probably don't even sell the same thread in the UK for all I know.