force
the conventional thinking is that inflation outpaced real wages. so the average schmoe's pay didn't go as far as it did last month. this /forced/ the wage earner to borrow more and more money. this was /okay/ cause everyone thought it was temporary. mouse nuts. the wage earner /chose/ to borrow more and more money to maintain their lifestyle. they could have chosen a less expensive lifestyle. some did. those that did aren't straddled with loans they can't repay today. kinda like aesop's ant and grasshopper. aesop doesn't explicitly say if the grasshopper starved to death during the winter. but it's implied the ant didn't bail him out of his predicament.