You wrote: The point is simply that our debt levels aren’t that unmanageable,...
The cost of living is important as this and income level determines the affordability of debt. Just comparing income level and debt level between the two countries is not a deep enough analysis in order to determine if your proposed fix would work.
You are also ignoring the fact that a large number of people who go to college never graduate. These people are completely absent from your analysis of the problem. You are focusing only on the set of college graduates of both countries. I suspect that the rate of college completion for those who enroll at least one semester is much higher in Sweden than in the U.S.
According to your post 1/3 of U.S. college graduates don't have employer subsidized healthcare. This is a huge percentage and you are ignoring them in your analysis of relative debt burden.
Taxes are higher as a percent in Sweden than in the U.S. but in the U.S. at a moment's notice you can get screwed financially really bad in ways that you can't in Sweden. An ambulance ride in the U.S. costs much more than in Sweden and yearly out of pocket expenses for healthcare is much higher. The necessity of a car causes most people in the U.S. to have auto loans and unplanned maintenance costs can send people over the financial precipice.
I suggest that merely looking at the numbers you have does not give a clear picture of the relative situation in both countries.
The cost of living is important as this and income level determines the affordability of debt. Just comparing income level and debt level between the two countries is not a deep enough analysis in order to determine if your proposed fix would work.
You are also ignoring the fact that a large number of people who go to college never graduate. These people are completely absent from your analysis of the problem. You are focusing only on the set of college graduates of both countries. I suspect that the rate of college completion for those who enroll at least one semester is much higher in Sweden than in the U.S.
According to your post 1/3 of U.S. college graduates don't have employer subsidized healthcare. This is a huge percentage and you are ignoring them in your analysis of relative debt burden.
Taxes are higher as a percent in Sweden than in the U.S. but in the U.S. at a moment's notice you can get screwed financially really bad in ways that you can't in Sweden. An ambulance ride in the U.S. costs much more than in Sweden and yearly out of pocket expenses for healthcare is much higher. The necessity of a car causes most people in the U.S. to have auto loans and unplanned maintenance costs can send people over the financial precipice.
I suggest that merely looking at the numbers you have does not give a clear picture of the relative situation in both countries.