As a person living Europe, who also grew up in a culture were credit was not available, the obsession with credit in the US is very strange to me. Why do peopl

As a person living Europe, who also grew up in a culture were credit was not available, the obsession with credit in the US is very strange to me. Why do people need to borrow money so often ? Is it really so hard to live within means ? And how come the government allows these sharks to operate freely - isn't this the business that the Mafia used to be famous for ?