The thing about this topic is that much of it is based off of each person's experience. And those experiences are all different. What's more things that work one place may not work somewhere else. And mix in with that is just out & out luck (I'll give an example of that below). But we all have to do what we think is right, partly on what have seen & party off of what we imagine will happen if something happens. And that something that happens is in the future & who can tell what's in the future? As the saying goes, you bets your money & you takes your chances. That's life.
Luck: I bought a house while I was in the military & ended up not returning to it for something like 9 years. From the time I bought it until 9 years later it achieved an increase in worth of 9 percent, that's an average of 1% per year. I sold it & bought another house & put the money from the first house on the balance. One could assume that a normal return of our newer house would be 1% per year (unless we under or over paid). Nope, oil prices zoomed & the oil fields got very busy, which were about 100 miles from here. So over the next 7 or so years we didn't gain 1% in value, our house tripled in value. I paid $115.500 for our house, a while back it was estimate that it was worth $330,000 or there abouts. But wait, they built new houses, same lot but 1 street over & they sold them for over $700,000 (asking $799,000). That was 3 of them & the biggest was only 100 sq ft better than mine. Same thing is happening 1 street over the other side of us & I expect they will be in the same price range.
Did I somehow expect that to happen, maybe 2nd sight, nope. I was just lucky. Luck can change for all sorts of reasons, like location etc..
Stay in your ivory tower among friends of your same ilk.....there are a bunch of average people out there that are going to crash and burn as the economy does another pump and dump.
Ok now stop. Yes there are a very, very few people who through no fault of their own end up in credit card hell. I admit it!!! But having said that I haven't met a single one of them. Those I see in CC hell are there because they have a spending problem. They are in one of 2 categories, either keeping up with the Jones or instant gratification types. Is it their fault, mostly yes. Partly it's either the parents or education systems fault (Yes way back when the education system used to touch on interest, ect. I know because I remember it). That's the "systems" fault. The parents fault is obvious because they should have taught them but didn't. I still say that it's "mostly" their fault because they have access to calculators & probably have a brain & well, they didn't figure it out. Simply put, you don't "SUDDENLY" go bankrupt. All along you were probably living on the edge & didn't realize the danger, because that's just life. Break an arm or a leg, not able to work & all of a sudden, you're behind the power curve & in a downward spiral. Everything wasn't great & all of a sudden something happened & it went to (you know). It was you know all along & you just didn't see it. Example: One of my Bil's had to declare Bankruptcy but it wasn't their fault. It was the fault of the debt consolidation company they when to & they declared BK & didn't make the needed payments & IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 2 TIMES THEY HAD REFINANCE THEIR HOUSE TO PAY CREDIT CARD DEBT, ABOSOLUTLY NOTHING. We bought houses close to the same time (within a few years). When mine was paid off he owed triple for the purchase price of his house. They learned nothing & probably still haven't.