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I voted no, but I probably sit closer to the 'i don't care' camp. I have a fairly sizeable mortgage on my home (and the default loan in Oz is variable loan, though fixed rate loans *do* exist). Having said that, my current income means that we can service this debt relatively easily. The housing price issues in the US really hasn't happened as much here, yet and our economy is still relatively strong (our reserve bank rates are trending up - 6 consectutive rate rises and probably more to come).
I think the biggest issue here is that people are being loaned ridiculously large sums of money - a debt that they do not have a hope in hell of servicing. I recall my brother attempting to borrow money to buy a car 20 years ago and being knocked back because the repayments were too much of his income (he was probably earning 20K and the car was 5 or 6K). This kind of knock back just does not happen as much as it should now.
Commenting on the parental responsebilities - my parents were always in the 'no cash, no buy' situation (excluding cars/houses). They were in their late 50s before they even got a credit card (and they only got this for travelling purposes - read Emergencies).
My wife and I don't have a credit card (we have a amex charge card, but as this needs to be paid off in full each month it is carried for convenience rather than for access to credit) and our only debt is the house loan. People should be more like this...
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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?
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