Students see these loans as "free flying" and believe the glossy brochures because they say exactly what they want to hear. When they are young they don't want to think about the consequences of this massive debt hanging around their necks for decades to come, no, it's "free flying" now! I probably would have been the same as a teenager but couldn't afford my first lesson until I was 26 and had established a good career doing something else.
The reality is very different to the glossy brochures. The ponzi scheme is making someone rich somewhere I suppose. I'd rather my taxes were used to improve airport infrastructure that train a whole lot of pilots who are surplus to requirements.