"For everybody else, increased debt should be seen in the context of the persistent stagnation of wages, where borrowing against a house became the easiest and perhaps the only way to support consumption."

if consumption is seen as necessary items because consumer goods aren't the cause of most debt. Elizabeth Warren's 30 year study of middle class spending shows that price increases for items like transportation, health care, child care, local taxes and fees, etc are the cause of the overall decrease in purchasing power for the lower 90% of income distribution, which combined with at best flat earning for many, translates into the need for debt just to maintain the same standard of living.