[mr_gibbins]

I was writing from the perspective of the debt-holder, that if you have expensive unsecured debt (and many poorer householders do), then as bills rise there is less disposable income to work with, debt payments eat a larger portion of outgoings and consequently is detrimental to quality of life.

If debt is not at a fixed interest rate then there's also the risk of interest rates going up, which we're seeing now. Theoretically a recession might help cap that, but it's a big gamble - an interest rate rise of, say, 5% would see an incredible amount of foreclosures. In the UK in the 80s, the interest rate topped 18% during a major recession and period of intense civil unrest.