Norway here: This is kind of how it works, but not quite.

While studying, you get a student loan. 40 % of that loan is automatically "forgiven" (turned into a stipend) as you complete your courses. In order to remain eligible for the loan, you need to maintain a certain progression in your studies, and there's also a limit to how many years you can receive the stipend for (I think it's eight years now). As long as you're studying, the loan doesn't accrue interest, and you don't need to make down payments.

Throughout five years, I received very roughly 200k NOK (≈20k USD) in stipend, and 300k NOK in loans.

Also, a PhD is treated as an ordinary job here. I'm paid about 600k NOK (≈60k USD) per year, which is a bit less than my peers from engineering studies in industry jobs (they get around 700-800), but it's by no means a bad pay. I've been able to afford a small apartment together with my SO on that pay. Hearing about places where people have to take up loans in order to finance taking a phd makes my head spin.

Have a friend who was a sort-of perpetual grad student - bouncing from Sweden to Italy to Australia - over about ten years, pursuing a degree in marine biology. Along the way, she contributed thousands of hours of labor to various research teams. Eventually, she got burned out, married a neurologist, and moved to a small house in Queensland. Now she mostly just gardens and raises bunnies, which she is extraordinarily good at thanks to her education.

Was this money wasted or did the universities get exactly what they paid her for? Idk. But it seems a far better way to employ people than what we've done with The Pentagon or ICE.

American public universities used to be free. But a lot of students protested things like racism and the Vietnam War so Ronald Reagan as governor of California and later as president worked hard to ensure that American students had to pay lest they have the time and financial freedom to exercise their rights