We borrow to pay for college, we borrow to build schools, we borrow to buy houses and cars and to eat out. We borrow to landscape our houses. We borrow to put granny in a nursing home. We borrow to pay pensions - government and private one.
We are mentally screwed up about how we purchase everything. It will right itself in the end, becuase this model is not naturally sustainable. This model cuase people to make bad decisions on what they buy, it cuases companies and governments to make bad decisions about allocating resources and it undermines overall trust, becuase at some point people/ institutions start putting forth energy to think about how they can get out of fulfilling their obligations. Society gets mentally messed up, they start to think they don't have to pay, and they don't pay (and quite frankly, they can't pay).
As a slight aside, Society even believes that their grandchildren are going to pay all the bills that have been incurred, even if it isn't fair to them. I have news, the grandchildren are not going to pay for all the bad debt issued so that old geezers can have a nice retirement before they were even born.
This system rewards politicians and bankers and other non-producers and takes away from the producers.
Until our minds are changed to really believe that it is wrong to buy so much stuff and fund so much stuff in debt, we are going to be in for a lot of hard times and a lot of hand wringing and troubled times
“Our” minds are “screwed up” because we have entrusted their formation for generations to government education and, secondarily, to the various forms of liberal media (including, especially, entertainment media).
Most conservatives won’t confront this and continue to collect on their favorite middle-class welfare entitlement, government schools. The money they save then allows them to pay their cable bill.
Change how we train up our children and we will change our minds.