"What are the true costs of financing the economy with debt?"
"Can there be prosperity without debt?"
Rick- I've thought about these questions a lot and I don't think I can answer them truthfully and fully without a little bit more clarification. What sort of debt are you referring to? Personal? Federal? Local? Mortgage? Please don't say all of them, because I think the question would be impossible to answer in the context of a message board- IMO. In general, I don't think that all debt is bad. The classification of debt as good or bad depends on the type, reason, and the person or entity's ability to repay it. Also, what do you mean by true cost? I assume you don't mean dollars and cents, but rather some sort of pleasure or pain measure. Maybe I'm wrong on the last one- just a guess.
For your 2nd question- what is prosperity? and who benefits from it? If a small town issues bonds to build a new water treatment plant that improves the quality of life, then I say that that debt is good and adds to the potential prosperity of the town. In this case debt is necessary for prosperity (town needs clean water to grow and to take care of its current people, and needs the tax revenue to pay the bonds). If you're referring to general prosperity, then I have no clue how to answer your question.