Debt is bad if you borrow it to spend. Unless it is just a timing issue. If I already know I am getting $100 in 6 months, then borrowing however much I can by offering to pay back that $100 is fine. It is not fine if you end up borrowing stuff you aren't going to get back. Then you get trapped paying continual interest. Debt is also okay if you can put the money to work in a way you are very confident it can earn more than the interest payments. If you don't understand the difference between Good Debt, and Bad Debt well ... then don't borrow.
A related concept is seeing money as capital, rather than what you can buy. So don't look at the $100 as a $100 jacket, or music concert, or groceries. See yourself as a custodian of that $100. Money isn't a thing. Money is a story. A useful story, is separating what you spend from the job you get your money. You decide whether to do the hiring (investing) or firing (spending). If your $100 gets a job that can make $5, then spend some of that $5, and hire some of that $5. Then the next year maybe you have $102.
In this way you can build up some basic financial security. You can build up an engine that pays a Basic Income. If a community did this, and saw their shared resources as something to look after, rather than to spend, they would be custodians. They could build a Community Wealth Fund that pays a Universal Basic Income.
A debt trap creates interest slaves. A Community Wealth Fund could be the catalyst for creative liberty.
Money is a story
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