FICO to incorporate buy-now-pay-later loans into credit scores

However, instead of using it to buy or construct a machine to triple what you can produce in an hour, the average person is using it to delay having to work that hour at all, in exchange for having to work an hour and six minutes sometime later.

At some point, you run out of hours available and the house of cards collapses.

i.e., credit can buy time in the nearly literal sense, you can do an hour's work in half an hour because the money facilitates it, meaning you can now make more money. If instead of investing in work you're spending on play, then you end up with a time deficit.

or, e.g. you can buy 3 franchises in 3 months instead of 3 years (i.e. income from the 1 franchise), trading credit for time to make more money, instead of burning it. It'd have been nice had they taught me this in school.

Is your position that taking debt to buy a house is bad unless you can sell it for a profit? Is working for the mortgage lender to accomplish that not worth it?

You can avoid it by renting, but then you’re just working for the landlord, so there’s no avoiding it.

If all of those buyers bought used for cash, nobody would be able to afford used cars for cash.

It really is only businesses that can convert debt into income, most consumers do not want to. There is nothing I can spend on to get a higher hourly rate.