Personal Debt Debate

Discussions focus on the role of debt in everyday life, debating whether it is a useful tool for assets like homes and education or a harmful burden leading to misery, with views on debt-free living versus leveraging cheap credit.

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#3700
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Keywords

GP FTW NO HUGE ROI debt loans credit money future owe pay debts living profits

Sample Comments

whynaut Jan 2, 2023 View on HN

why does debt matter so much? human-created construct

eru Nov 3, 2010 View on HN

People in debt do strange things.

glogla Sep 13, 2019 View on HN

This might be true in thermodynamic sense but it is a useless and trite statement.It's like saying "people are in debt because they borrowed money" - true, but banal and trivial, and pretending it's the whole story and saying nothing of medical debt, student loans or living from paycheck to paycheck and payday loans dayloans is only good for feeling better than someone, most likely while pretending that all people in debt are stupid because they buy too many cars and TVs o

sgjohnson Jun 24, 2019 View on HN

> In the mean time you are in debtWhy/how is that a bad thing?

petercooper Feb 15, 2010 View on HN

To be in debt is a way of life. People buy things on credit long before they have the money to pay it off.Like, say, houses? Or a college education?The problem isn't debt, per se - it's reaching a level of debt that can't be easily serviced by future earnings. Debt/credit is useful to invest in assets that return benefits to you over the period of paying the debt off. The ability to make these investments are a cornerstone of why the West has been so successful over the past

omginternets Jun 1, 2022 View on HN

The issue isn't so much the debt as it is using debt to buy things you can't really afford.

mrsuprawsm Jan 25, 2023 View on HN

might be a better idea to have a system where you don't need to go into debt to stay alive

immibis Mar 22, 2024 View on HN

Forcing regular people to take out huge debt is not good for them.

lotsofpulp May 22, 2025 View on HN

Why is why one shouldn’t take on large amounts of debt for questionable return.

moneywoes Dec 28, 2019 View on HN

Can you elaborate on how debt is a tool please