The cost of attending The University of Alabama for one year is estimated to be around $24,000. To some that number will seem like a lot, and to others it may seem perfectly reasonable. But what really puts it in context is when you realize that the average Alabamian only makes $23,500 in a year.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Nationwide, the cost of attending college increases by around 6 percent a year, according to Forbes. And because more and more employers are requiring their new hires to have a bachelor’s, young Americans are being forced to find a way to foot the bill.

Enter student loans. Although they appear to be a godsend, student loan debt is now the second largest source of private debt in America. The average student debt for a 2013 graduate is $35,000.

At this point, all Americans need to face facts. In our economy, a college education is no longer a luxury for the intellectual elite; it’s a necessity for most people who want a decent wage and job security. But our model for tuition payments is putting a staggering burden on young people who just want to learn a trade.

Many will shrug their shoulders and ask, “What can we do?” But few realize that in other parts of the world, radically different approaches to this problem are helping students and society achieve their full potential.

Take Australia. Like in the U.S., every Australian undergraduate needs to pay tuition if they want to stay in school, and students who can’t pay by other means can resort to government loans. The amount of debt one student can incur is capped, and interest rates are extremely high. However, Australians don’t have to start paying until they’re earning $50,000 a year. Payments then increase with income up to about 8 percent of a debtor’s total income.

The benefits of this system are numerous: It allows the government to charge higher interest and collect more money from each debtor, but without placing the burden on recent grads who have yet to find their feet. It is simultaneously generous to students and extremely profitable. As the saying goes, you can’t get blood from a stone.

More extreme examples can be seen in the U.K. In England, the government places an upper limit on the amount that universities are allowed to charge for tuition. And in Scotland, no citizen is required to pay for a college education at all.

In fact, as shocking as it may seem, many European states offer free education. Denmark and Greece provide universal free education for citizens, and tuition is free for most students in Spain, France and Italy.

Obviously, some Americans will view any government subsidization of college education with mistrust. Our confidence in capitalism is so robust that the knee-jerk reaction of many Americans will be to stay the course and weather any difficulties.

But ultimately, student debt is incredibly bad for our economy. Indebted students spend less, pay fewer taxes and fewer than 50 percent of all student debtors are actually able to pay all of their debts. In contrast, to subsidize education is to inject skilled, trained laborers into our economy.

In the end, government subsidization of education is an investment. And as we can see from the rest of the world, it’s an investment worth making.

Nathan James is a junior majoring in public relations. His column runs weekly.