You are making baseless assumptions. I was born in a very poor country, to parents neither of whom could afford to finish high school. My worldview was shaped

You are making baseless assumptions. I was born in a very poor country, to parents neither of whom could afford to finish high school. My worldview was shaped by a world where debt was just not an option (think loan sharks & 300%+ annual interest rates when inflation was in the 10% annual range) and mortgages simply didn't exist. If you got into debt that you couldn't repay, you got thugs at the door to collect. So I am already used to much worse circumstances than the worst that is likely ahead in America. Having said that, what lies ahead for America is going to be very painful economically, even more so because Americans by and large have no recent memory of such economic pain, so lack the "inoculation" that lesser societies have built up due to periodic crises. Deep structural changes are inevitable - and such changes in the economy end up having profound cultural and social impact, some of which is unpredictable. I would personally do fine both because my personal balance sheet is in fine shape and because I have a lot of inoculation. Can you say that about the average American? These are the things I said we should be afraid of.