[NortySpock]

Think of debt simplisticly, as negative savings. If you have debt, your net worth is "below zero". If you have 10k debt and 10k savings, your net worth is still (simplisticly) zero.

So, far from thinking about credit availability or credit worthiness, if you just think of debt as negative savings, you can see debt and savings mutually annihilate (like matter and antimatter), and sum to zero.

Debt is a wonderful, powerful invention -- but for many people who are unaware that debt costs interest, this simple model can help them reason about debt and decide to pay it off rather than letting it linger or taking out more debt.