> better off with a mortgage because it forces them to save money I'm going to go ahead and guess you don't have a large peer group who were buying houses in t

> better off with a mortgage because it forces them to save money I'm going to go ahead and guess you don't have a large peer group who were buying houses in the late-2000s. A mortgage in no way forces you to save money, added to which it has a tendency to decrease savings due to the moral licensing of exactly your train of thought. "I'm already saving with my sweet ARM, I can afford to lease that car!" People who are financially illiterate are going to be bad with money, regardless of the system.