"Although European universities are free only the top 20% of academic performers actually get to go. In the US pretty much anyone can go to college by taking a loan"

Could you show me some sources of what you're claiming?

I'm from the Netherlands and have a few points.

1) Uni is not free, but definitely a lot cheaper than most US universities

2) You can get a loan from the government (no questions asked) that you can pay back over 30 years without interest.

There are a lot of differences between universities in different European countries so I wouldn't consider Europe as one homogenous territory to make points like this.