I dunno, man. Debt is the same thing as "financing" and really, within any business cycle there will be periods of expanding and contracting debt. "It always comes back to debt" is kind of like saying "the tide always comes in." Profound, sure. And yeah there are people building sand castles that aren't thinking about the tide. But it's a 100% predictable force of nature. Sunrise, sunset.

The developed world has actually been a lot better about debt lately:

Generally when people whinge about consumer debt they aren't talking about the Chinese but they've been on a bender lately. And whenever we're talking about "everyone" I try not to get too deep into motive and personal failings and more into external pressures. People go into debt because there's no substantial negative impact on them for doing so. There's no substantial negative impact on them because lenders want their business. Lenders want their business because the government wants liquidity in the economy. And in the end, it's just the fuckin' tide.

Sure - I do my level best to be conscious of the tide and I would be in a very different position if I didn't study the shit out of everything I do. The people who plan better and understand the risks better come out ahead every time - my wife is the only person I know who didn't pile into an ARM in like 2006. But there was a whole lot of ballyhoo convincing everyone that ARMs were a great idea and when we've got a system that requires you to spend days researching that thing that everyone wants you to do before you realize what a bad idea it is, we're better off blaming the system than the individual.