> I suspect I am upset that debt has become the way people fill-in for low wages, lack of social support etc. Yeah, that's the flip-side of extending credit. I

> I suspect I am upset that debt has become the way people fill-in for low wages, lack of social support etc. Yeah, that's the flip-side of extending credit. It used to be that houses were a smaller multiple of the average salary because only short term (e.g. 3-5 year) loans were available. Of course homeownership rates were lower. Then banks began offering 30 year mortgages and homeownership increased but house prices rocketed up and it became common for working people to carry 30 years of massive debt. Then downpayment requirements were weakened from 20% to 10% to 3.5%. Now you even have interest only loans. So locking people out of certain credit markets, or banning certain lending instruments, certainly has an appeal. I wouldn't mind if the federal government stopped insuring home loans and student loans and we returned to 3-5 year loans for homes and maybe 1-2 year loans for autos. We should not be in the business of subsidizing all this household debt, and we should be discouraging it a bit.