I come from a country where my education was paid for by other people's tax money. I studied the subjects where my curiosity was greatest, and though I don't work in that field now, I do rely on things I learned through my college experience almost every day, and they make me better at my current job. Overall they make me a better contributor to the world around me, and I also have this feeling of gratitude that my world class education was not entangled with crushing debt, plus, you know, the playing field is at least somewhat more level at home than here in the US. You get the grades, you go to college. You don't have to evaluate the pros and cons of large amounts of unsecured loans. It's astonishing to me how things have turned out in the US. Ireland is far from perfect but we do pretty ok at affordable, accessible higher education.