I'm one of the “lucky” ones in the sense that I'll always have a roof thanks to my parents (which is kinda shameful to begin with), but it's still not a great situation, and it's worse for most people:
I'm 32 years old, only 30 000 euros saved, BA, MA, student debt paid sure (I went to a private business school), but the cost of living is so high compared to how low our salaries are on average that it's hard to save anything.
I recently chose to go back to the 1050 sqft condominium in Lyon, France (it's the seconde biggest city in the country) earned by my parents (they bought a 2400 sqft big house recently so they're not gonna stay there), so that I have no rent to pay. It's literally the only way I'll be able to save money the next decade, allowing me to finally buy a house maybe in my mid 40's…and by that time maybe it'll be impossible because of how high the prices will be, who knows.
AND I know what you will say: that's only because I'm lucky enough to have parents who can afford to buy both a condo and a house, otherwise I'd be doomed to rent forever, never being able to save, work all my life…for nothing.
So yeah, we get a safety net, we have social security, real disability funds for people who can't work, and so on… so that's something for sure, but it's not rainbows and sunshines: our salaries are drastically lower than yours due to how the system works, so getting financially “free” is extremely tough here. 35-55k euros is what you usually get with a master's in the LONG TERM. Yup, that's how it is. You know how much you gotta earn to make it in the top 1 percent earners these days in most Western Europe countries? 11 500 – 12 500 euros (13 000 – 14 000 dollars) a month before tax. Very few people get to that level here. Also, in the US, people who are in the top 1 percent have a net worth of at least 4 million dollars (proof here: https://www.knightfrank.com/research/article/2021-03-01-how-much-wealth-gets-you-into-the-global-top-1). In Western Europe it's 2 million dollars (didn't convert in euros here). Quite a bit of a difference huh?
My thinking is the following: I'm sure it's incredibly stressful to know that, EVEN when you're a big earner in the USA, you can definitely end up homeless if you're unlucky…but it's also incredibly depressing to know that you'll probably never achieve any kind of wealth by yourself in Europe even after you've fought hard for a higher level education.