Not GP but he is serious. Look at Germany, we have essentially free university education as well as government assistance with cost of living (Bafög). Only thing you may need loans for is for cost of living not covered by Bafög (e.g. in high rent areas and you do not want to work aside of university), but that's on the low-end range - think 10k, 20k but no 100-200k like in the US.

Same for single payer healthcare - we have for most people a single payer system and still we're not a socialist country as US republicans regularly whine and cry every time someone dares to propose a fix to your clusterfucks.