The original comment was meant to describe the 'elephant in the room' of how relatively inexpensive higher education is in Europe, and it definitely still holds

The original comment was meant to describe the 'elephant in the room' of how relatively inexpensive higher education is in Europe, and it definitely still holds true from a US perspective. At my current university in the Boston area, for example, yearly tuition is around ~$50,000 USD, and that doesn't even include room & board; I'm paying an additional $1,400 per month for a private room in a 2bed/1bath. With that in mind, the original comment definitely still offers a perspective I didn't consider before in terms of the cost difference in relation to the arguments in this thread.