It doesn't seem like you could get more than $2,300 out of them long-run, because otherwise the debt collection companies would be able to get more out of them!

The OP seemed to be hypothesizing that the mere fact of being in (so much) debt was diminishing productivity; it might be that you can get more than $2300 of value out of them if, say, their being inspired to work for some noble cause (or for higher-status forms of self-interest than debt reduction) makes them work oodles harder or smarter than if they'd been doing analogous work to pay off debts.