JaiBharat, in France, we have public universities and more selective way to study. All of that is free, and it works.
For the selective schools, all the process is based on the results of the student during the past year (So marks during the high school for the new students and on selective exams for the others).
For the University, the system is a little bit different. Everyone must be accepted for the first year, but noone could reach higher class if he is not up to standard and you can't repeat a year as many time as you want.
So many people go to the first year of university but half of them don't continue and start working.

So at the end, all the people who have enough capacities to study could, without making huge debts.

but you're burdening other people.

With a system of taxes in function of the annual wages of each families. So those who could pay for the others. France is a socialist country. As you seem to be pro-capitalism, you must dislike our system.
But I think it's actually quite good. There are many problem but I think we could say in France that you could live quite well in France if you want to. I'm not sure it's true for the USA.

This link brings to a map that shows how many hours someone has to work in order to afford a single bedroom rent with the minimum wage : http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2012-OOR-Min-Wage-Map.pdf

In New Jersey, for example, you have to work 100 hours/week. Do you really think it's possible. MORE THAN 14 HOURS PER DAY ! If you do that, you're nothing more than a slave.

Edited 1/25/2016 21:47:22

So, people are paid what their work is worth here and businesses make more profit. If they choose to do work that is almost worthless then it is their own doing.

I suppose your familly is quite wealthy and that you know noone with financial difficulties. But you have to know that some people are not enough smart to do something else than little jobs and that the society needs them. Could you imagine your life without retailers, garbage collectors, cleaning lady or whatever which are doing low paid jobs ?

I'm not wealthy and don't come from wealth. No one could but they're paid what their work is worth.

So you think that someone who has to work 14 hours per day to survive (in fact that's just to pay is rent, he has still to find money to buy food...) is living on a fair world. Because you know what will happend to this man, he will become a beggar because such a condition of living are impossible to endure. But if he's not smart enough or if he doesn't have enough money to study, he has no choice.
I'm sorry but your way of thinking shows your not poor. (In fact as you have a computer, you can't be poor.) Your not rich maybe but you earn enough to live correctly. Maybe with some sacrifices but nothing infeasible.

I think that if your working you have to earn enough to live. It supposes that the minimum wage should be enough high to insure that.

Edited 1/25/2016 22:21:57

I never said it was fair. Thats your belief, a belief economics shows to be unsustainable.

If people are not paid enough to live your system is no more sustainable than mine.

They are paid enough to live. That also has no bearing upon its sustainability.

I'm sorry but your way of thinking shows your not poor. (In fact as you have a computer, you can't be poor.)

Common fallacy is that what we define as poor in the United States is many times richer than most nations in the world. Its relative and you have to look at wealth distribution and poverty on a relative scale otherwise its misleading.

Here are the percentages of households below the poverty level that the Census Bureau estimates had the following appliances:

Clothes washer: 68.7%

Clothes dryer: 65.3%

Dish washer: 44.9%

Refrigerator: 97.8%

Food freezer: 26.2%

Stove: 96.6%

Microwave: 93.2%

Air conditioner: 83.4%

Television: 96.1%

Video recorder/DVD: 83.2%

Computer: 58.2%

Telephone (landline): 54.9%

Cell phone: 80.9%

America's poor are not very materialistically poor as you can see. These people are not living on $2 a day, which is what 800 million Indians live on. India is a quasi-socialist country. Maybe if they had engaged in capitalism earlier on in their development, it wouldn't be so bad.

Link - http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-americans-poverty-typically-have-cell-phones-computers-tvs