> About not getting into debt, how many people are can go to college ("invest in yourself") without?
Like 95% of the rest of the developed world ;)
Like 95% of the rest of the developed world ;)
Are there any others?
Source: I grew up in one of those places, plenty of people will borrow from the government on top of what they are given.
Yeah you still have to have the money for food and place to live, but you'd need that anyway, and it's not that expansive. Most people get these money from their parents without loaning any money from banks.
FWIW I wasn't suggesting that students in other countries don't take any loans, I was pointing out that they don't necessarily have to.
In Germany, for example, there is a government loan system for studying, where you get enough per month, and only have to pay back ~20 months of it (which is a fraction of the time in college), and can pay it back under quite good conditions. In Spain, it is common for students to live with their families, work, or for their families to help them a bit.
Many students don't take a loan, and ether work ~15h/week, or get money from parents, or both. Even poor families are able to push 2 children through college without accumulating debt.
If tuition here were to cost, e.g, 3000 EUR/year, many families and students wouldn't be able to do that. If tuition were to cost 20k EUR or more / year, most families would need to indebt themselves.
However it is more like a graduate tax than loan, if you don't earn much you don't pay it back and it gets written off after 25 years.