I went the military route, so I didn't have any loans. But I can tell you about one of my friends and his situation that I am familiar with. He and his wife went to medical school. He chose family medicine and she chose neurology for residencies. They both finished med school at around age 27-28. He then finished residency at 31 and she finished residency at 32 and a sleep fellowship at 33). They ended up having close to $500,000 in debt. She went part time so that she could have children and raise them for the first few years. He works full-time. They have a modest house in a neighborhood full of teachers and cops and other middle income folks, they drive modest cars (5ish year old subaru and CRV), and they live in a pretty darn affordable part of the country (middle Pennsylvania).

Working 3 days a week, she makes close to $200,000 and they have essentially lived off of just his paycheck (low $200s) while using her entire paycheck to pay off their loans. They are just now getting close to paying off their loans, nearly 7 years out from completion of her fellowship.

Now, imagine that you don't have a wife making a second large income with part-time work. Imagine you don't live somewhere where you can live with very affordable housing. You can easily see how people can still live modestly and take decades to pay off those loans. So sometimes, when people are complaining about those loans, they aren't living in mansions and driving sports cars.