They go hand in hand, and are not mutually exclusive, instead often feeding one another in myriad ways. Housing is an obvious one - the rich accumulate capital

They go hand in hand, and are not mutually exclusive, instead often feeding one another in myriad ways. Housing is an obvious one - the rich accumulate capital, the gross inequality reduces the market for the "good" kinds of investment capitalism is purported to promote - small business creation, innovation, etc - so without opportunity - and wealth inequality diminishes opportunity society-wide - the rich will instead find other avenues to grow their slice of the pie. Buying politicians for tax cuts like were seen last year, speculative housing bubbles because of the few things that are scarce and nobody can opt out of land occupancy is one of them (and the poor want to move towards opportunity, almost exclusively found in cities in the modern era, where land capture can be made its most lucrative), stock buybacks in corporations, etc. So housing prices go up, lack of collective power means the working class see no wage increases, debt has to increase to maintain lifestyle. Higher debt means less potential for upward mobility and the lenders are almost exclusively the rich - so you are constantly making short term loans where the interest is diverted from your productive gains right in the pockets of creditors. But its not just housing. There are dozens of nigh independently influenced aspects of living in the US that are impacted by wealth disparity and the distorting effects its concentration have on liberty, prosperity, even security. But almost all of them cause increases in debt because as you get relativistically poorer the fixed costs of life go up and you cannot opt out of them.