BUT ALL THAT DEBT HAS MADE CERTAIN INDUSTRIES VERY RICH: Megan McArdle: Too Much Debt Is Making Us Sticks-in-the-Mud.

Our debt has a way of focusing us on downsides, because debt turns a continuous income curve into two discontinuous lines: “solvent” and “insolvent.” More generally, debt has a way of magnifying life events. When things are going well, debt can help them go better: You can buy a house and a car, or you can buy a bigger house and a nicer car. But when things are going badly, debt can turn a slight income loss into a major disaster.

Most Americans now have a lot of debt, whether they’re ordinary workers or commercial landlords. Which means that most Americans have to be extraordinarily sensitive about letting their income cross the line where they can no longer support their debt payments. Which in turn means that already sticky prices may become positively glue-like.

Traditionally, we had various rules and conventions that tended to limit debt. Those were swept aside in the general revolt against bourgeois tendencies. As with most such sweeping-aside, there were winners and losers.