The reason why student debt is basically unheard of in Denmark since college is free (although to make that happen, the Danish government poses high taxation towards citizens like they do in order to maintain stable social security nets like subsidised healthcare and public housing, also why they have less homelessness).
Mainly Danish, Swiss and European citizens are eligible to study without stressing over student debt upon graduation. It stems from this: Danish government is more on for the people while American government is more on caring about themselves plus nepotism on the side (MORE & HIGHER TAXES TOO ON TOP OF THAT).
Yes, we actually don’t know the numbers that are common over there, but I have heard that students get in debt for a huge part of their lifetime - which we consider a scandal and a shame for a country.
The numbers can be pretty crazy - but yeah it’s a complex hellscape of excessive prices combined with student aid designed to extract the most from every student.
My state is covering tuition at its public universities for people below a certain income. After federal subsidies. But you still need to cover room and board. Meanwhile the list price is higher than the Ivy League school I went to many years ago.
But the school my youngest really wanted, has huge subsidies almost half the cost, yet wanted us to come up with $50k/year.
But there’s also a cultural thing where college became almost expected, regardless of what you wanted to do in life. If you only look at it as a financial investment there are many scenarios where it will never pay off or the desired job is too low an income to pay it off. Of course people complain about poor choices in spending when the real problem is thinking of college merely as a financial investment. But college is a good thing if it helps people learn and think, regardless whether there is a direct payoff
The numbers are on google dude.
The average student debt is 30K. Most students pay about 10K a year for college here, because most students get a lot of financial aid. that isn’t a lifetime of debt. nor is it crippling. that student goes off and typically gets a 50-70K job, and pays off the debt in 5-10 years. But the media isn’t going to report that.
They are going to report the kid that has 300K in debt, and a degree in English, and can’t get a job outside of Starbucks, because that is DRAMATIC. Those people do exist, but they are a STARK minority, and frankly, having personally known some of those people, they are really really dumb and they make bad choices, even when better choices are available to them. Usually out of being stubborn single-minded asses. They usually get there from a series of bad choices, and they cry ‘innocent’.
I’ve also known people with modest debts, who didn’t pay them back because they want to party and ‘live it up’, and yeah 10 years later they are massive. Well… that’s how debt works. You need to pay it back. I am in my 40s and I meet regularly meet people who have never paid a dime back on their student loans after 20 years, who how have six figures of student debt.
A lot of Americans are very very bad with money. They buy things they can’t afford, and get angry at everyone else about their debts.