"negligible is not zero".
you must be a programmer...
ok, here are the estimated numbers you can easily find doing some search:
EU: 45-60Bn eur
US: 1.5Tn eur
so EU students have a debt that is less than 4% of their US peers
it's not a 4% difference, it's a 25x difference
and guess what? they also eat, sleep and buy books...