I've never had a debt for a car, then again I've always driven shite cars! the trouble is a car can cost thousands, what are you meant to do, save up whilst spending all your money on busses? I have to say I agree though, buy a good but cheap car, something second hand and cheap rather than borrowing thousands to buy a car is definitly the way to go.Debt for car = stupid
Debt for house = probably okay
Debt for school = usually stupid, the statistics on kids actually completing college now are horrible and there are plenty of companies or good old uncle sam (army, navy, etc) who will pay for your school.
Debt for any electronic device, like computers TV Blu-Ray = Really STUPID
debt for electronic devices, yes, I agree really stupid, even if you don't have a TV at all, I'd say it was better to read a book and save to buy outright rather than getting into debt for luxuries.
college, really this is a weird one, you'll find that you can get sponsored for some courses, but the range of courses can be limited,
when I first went to university I went on a sponsorship, I'd applied for a sponsorship because I didn' think that I'd be able to afford to pay all the fees and such on my own, and even if I could have, certainly someone else paying was a nice thing, but I didn't like the uni, in the end I left, went to a different uni, and decided that I'd just have to pay for it myself. I'd consider an education an investment, you'd do better to borrow to get an education than not borrow and not get one, it'll pay for itself, and the interest and more in the long run. -but yes, investigating sponsorships is a good thing.
borrowing to buy a house. sadly this is the only way most people will ever be able to get a house, unless you win or inherit a lot of money! without owning a house all you're doing is paying money to live in someone else's house.
if you buy your own house you may be paying interest to a bank, but at least after 20 years of paying the bank rent you'll end up with a house rather than another 20 years more rent paying someone else's mortgage or holidays.
again, getting into debt like this is more of an investment and a good thing rather than a bad thing.
Though I agree with you, there is a credit industry, everyone that you speak to on a call desk at the card company, all their adverts, managers etc, they are all paid for by people paying off debts, because once you borrow money you'll always pay back more than you borrowed...
so yes, bear in mind that when you borrow money you're essentially agreeing to pay for someone else's wages with your interest payments!