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Like the old saying goes, "feudalism with extra steps".

The first and last yes absolutely, though aim a conservative Brit and how Americans reconcile themselves to your health insurance (or lack of it) system really baffles me.

Mortgages aren’t as clear cut. Our mortgages have been the backbone of my family’s current financial security. After all the idea is at the end you own your house. Interest only mortgages not so much of course and it requires that the house ends up being worth the cost, but I’m talking about the general case.

Student loan debt is also not nearly as burdensome for the borrower in the UK has in the United States.

The UK basically operates a graduate tax system [1].

[1] - http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/28418590/understanding...

everything about the mortgage market creating the single family detached housing market is terrible. putting aside the environmental side of it (which is HUGE) the simple truth is the math only reaaaly works on an inter-generational scale. just because some upper-quintile of families have made it work doesn't make it not indentured servitude.

In financial planning, we call that life-time debt.