As a teenager, I was taught to never borrow money unless you absolutely have to. I only borrowed to buy a couple of houses and even then paid off the mortgages ASAP. I've never borrowed to buy a car.
That is how I have lived too. The only credit I have ever taken was for land. And all my businesses I built from scratch one dollar at a time invested back into it to build it. Never took credit the whole time I was in business. So it CAN be done without credit. But... The interest is fair and productive on land and makes sense. It is not compounded daily giving a bank a 20k profit over the 10k they loaned you. You are paying interest on interest.
So more wealth is actually acquired if one saves and then buys because you do not pay three times what it is worth. And it is paid off sooner. That extra 20k you did not pay can be put to work as personal capital and cash flow. And cash flow is the name of the game...