> But “stop paying your debts” is a bad message imo.
Not really.
- Do you own a debt to your parents with a interest rate of 25% because they gave birth to you ?
- Do you own rent to planet earth for living in it ?
Debt can be unreasonable, just like wealth can be unreasonable. Its why governments intervene to destroy large amount of concentrated wealth and Egyptian pharaohs used to periodically clear everybody's debt.
The culture of " Paying your debt " is created by the small number of creditors who historically have controlled information flow, because they understand that society in aggregate has strong bargaining power.