"Also, debt (even when used very wisely) is still a risk. Lose a job for an extended period, have a major unexpected expense etc and all that wisely used debt might suddenly seem like not such a great idea."
Stepping outside the house in the morning is a risk. Your chance of dying goes up significantly.
Hell, stepping into the showing in the morning significantly spikes your liklihood of dying.
You can have a nice nest egg saved up, have no debt, and STILL lose everything.
There are no guarantees in life, other than that you're going to die.
OH, just so everyone knows where I'm coming from on this...
I have a mortgage on my house.
I have a little over $2,000 in debt outside of the house.
I have a little over $42,000 in liquid funds, cash and easily liquidized assets.
I plug 27% of my pay right into my 401K right off the top.
I plug a minimum of another $500 into my savings every month.
My credit rating is just shy of 800.
And I still believe that debt, properly used, is a useful tool.
Life would be absolutely wonderful if one could, in all situations, simply plunk down a pile of cash or write a check to pay for any and every expense.
$25,000 for a new car? Hey, no problem, let me get my wallet out.
$35,750 for Junior's tuition for his Freshman year? Pocket change.
New house now that Junior has finally gotten his carcass out of the old one? $750,000? Not a problem, let me back up the dump truck full of quarters!
Yeah, wonderful, but oh so silly and unrealistic for the vast majority of people.
It's about as reasonable as John Cumutta bull crap where he has people on the radio saying "I can pay off my $190,000 house loan in less than 3 years, and just on the money I already make! (robbing banks?)"