French person here, a lot of my French friends from high school went into med school. Free universities, no debts, heavy unionization, you can easily move to nursing/pharmacology if you fail med school... free education solves many social problems.
(You can't do anything if you're dead, after all.)
> High taxes are an obstacle to personal liberties, too.
No. Taxes are spread out among the population. Financial debt is burdening only one individual.
In Europe, in France and Belgium, we like to think solidarity is a good thing.
I actually had a classmate tell me the other day that me being able to get the medications I need to stay alive (because of the ACA) was going to drive the country bankrupt and (direct quote here) "destroy America." In my experience, my countrymen do not care for others very much--only themselves.
Well, that's true, but it doesn't change the truth of what I said. The people who never go to college have less money to spend on themselves because they're subsidizing people who will go on to make a lot of money.
So, not free, but it does, in fact, cost less.