Comment by XorNot

Except your second line is contradicted at the outset, because the largest purchase most people will make - their home - is bought on debt (a mortgage).

Now there's sound, very good reasons to do this...but the headline issue itself already forces us to deal with more complex issues.

Right there we're into issues like why is it okay to buy some things on debt but not others, how do you evaluate the time value of money etc.

All still relatively simple...but not that simple, and frequently with no obviously correct answers either.