My European perspective is that the brokenness is on a more fundamental level. My family has for three generations now avoided any and all debt. We earn and we

My European perspective is that the brokenness is on a more fundamental level. My family has for three generations now avoided any and all debt. We earn and we spend what we earn. Yes, under current circumstances this is coming from a place of privilege. But its not too far off from the default in Europe, with free public education and healthcare and public retirement systems. All of them with flaws but actually mostly working. My grandparents did not own a credit card. My parents do not. We rent. We have around 30 paid days off plus “unlimited“ paid sick days and months of paid maternity leave. Just to name a few things that are so standard here that most people just consider them a given and nothing worth even mentioning. I am in my forties myself and expect never to need a credit line on my bank account or card. Each generation has built their own “wealth“ sufficient to live well, with no inheritance or property ownership, and with support from the next generation in the final decade - most of it coming from the public pension system built on the idea of solidarity and community, not individualism. So: No, where I am, credit cards could disappear without much effect. They are far from required. They are a component of a system meant to push you into slavery.