Canada

I think you are oversimplifying. Debt is great when only a few narrow conditions apply: equal or less than the cost of renting over the life of the loan/leined_item, payments match income (fixed payments for fixed income, variable payments for variable income).

Generally hourly workers who have variable hours cannot take out a loan or lease because variable income does not match the fixed expense.

Generally loans are stupid unless it has been underwritten (aka quoted at a cheap cost/interest_rate) due to the three cs: cash flow, credit history/score, and collateralized.

Specifically to address your comment. The rich enslave the poor. Poor people don't just learn those two paragraphs with intuition overnight, and often the short term need for calories outweighs the need to pay credit on-time. The generation before had to have their hands held with checks and cash and balancing them such that there was more "intuition" regarding loans.

I hope this helps someone. I would share the ways I have maximized the matching expenses and revenue and how my mortgage keeps me wanting to keep a salaried role, but I don't like sharing too much personal info.

Good luck lemmings.

Eh when they had the no interest or a year if paid off in that time frame it was great.