Of course that's possible, but I think more people will avoid that if they know they won't be able to afford food the next day. Easy credit is a big factor allowing people to continue making the bad decision to keep living outside their means for quite a long time without directly feeling the negative effects until farther in the future.

By then they end up with a hefty amount of debt and their lifestyle preferences are ratcheted up; they don't want to downgrade from their BMW to a Honda, move to a less fancy neighborhood and start cooking more meals at home. They are more inclined to keep scraping by with their luxuries, overburdened by debt service.