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Let's not get too extreme here. Debt and credit are both useful financial tools, if you have the maturity and discipline to USE them, not abuse them. Easiest example: Mortgages. How many folks would own a home without them. You're buying an asset that increases in value (usually). It's as 'good' as debt gets. "If I ain't got cash I ain't buying" would have 90% of the populace renting (probably from the other 10% who took a mortgage to buy income property). Another one. Much as they're maligned, student loans are a good investment. The average BA holder will earn $1,000,000 more over a career than a HS Diploma holder, per the federal govt. So yeah, borrowing $60K for school that ends up costing you $90K overall is painful. It's a bi*tch making payments when you're just working and not making much.... But anytime I can invest amount X and get back 10X over a reasonable time frame, I'll do it. Not to mention all the additional benefits the extra income gives you... such as being able to avoid debt! I do think Credit Cards have there place, though I'd recommend "charge" cards instead, e.g. American Express original green card, i.e. you gotta pay it each month. Such "revolving" credit can actually be a very good way to track expenses and manage your money, rather than a wad of ca***hat 30 days later you're not quite sure where it all went. The core of the problem is we, as a society, don't teach our kids how to manage money. I know of no high school or college that makes "how to balance your checkbook" or "the power of compound interest" or "how to make and stick to a budget" as required courses... or at all for that matter... My kids won't suffer from that deficiency because I'll teach them this stuff myself... Too few do.
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