Part 6/10:
In addition to education and work, the structure of American society has introduced significant debt dependency through housing and education. The introduction of policies like mortgages during the Great Depression aimed to make homeownership attainable for the middle class, but instead, it tied them into long-term debt cycles. Homebuyers inadvertently committed decades of their lives working to pay off mortgages, leaving marginal financial freedom.
Student loans followed a similar trajectory. Initially designed to assist students in accessing higher education, student loans quickly morphed into a burdensome debt trap. As colleges hiked their prices to capitalize on government-backed loans, graduates found themselves in financial predicaments.