This is highly location dependent though. I just happened to notice that the interest on my Swedish student loan is 0.16%. That in combination with the income-indexed payback scheme and the fact that the loan balance is forgiven at age 65 makes it an absurdly good deal.
Swedish higher education is generally free, or at least very cheap.
If you insist you can find places that are not free, but generally loans are taken to finance housing and living
public loans in the US are forgiven after 10 years (PSLF), even if you're on a payment plan.
I second this (U.S.). I came from a middle class family but college came straight from my pocket. I sunk nearly $75,000 into college and struggled to get a comfortable paycheck for a long time. I'm now 32 and feel that I can make ends meet but it came at the cost of destroyed credit, inability to purchase a home/car, etc. Slowly things have recovered and I now own a home, married, kids.. but I had never felt more depressed than when I realized the true cost of college. Teenage me didn't quite understand what I was signing up for, adult me regrets the decisions I made. (I went to school for Graphic Arts, I shifted to Software Development in my late 20s).