In your description a debt created in return for consumption today and honored in the future is like a wormhole in space-time.  Unlike iron or steel, personal labor is a real resource capable of time travel.  A psychiatrist can work 40 hours or 80 hours this week.  Presumably society is better off if he works 80, so we promise him more money (future demand) in return for his services now (supply pulled forward, especially if he retires earlier than he otherwise would).  In theory, as you imply, future generations are better off since you have &quot;accelerated&quot; economic development which is usually net positive.  In reality, taken to the extreme, you wake up one day and find that you have been born into a world of neonatal debt slavery to retired psychiatrists who you never met and (especially without population growth) the entire system collapses and reboots.  This describes Japan: a country with 300% debt to GDP and flat to declining population, where babies are born into a headwind of sovereign debt.