I completely agree with everything you said, both in this response and your response to Scrubbles. I also appreciate your long-form responses in both.

This is, however, the system in which we live. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Choosing to pay cash for big ticket items, real estate, and durable goods when other accounts/portfolios earn more interest than the financing... that's just throwing money away. If your laddered certificates accounts earn >3.5% and you can get 0% or 1% automobile financing (and you need a vehicle where you live), I don't think anyone would choose to burn that much liquidity.

You really haven’t ‘bought’ your home untill you’ve fully paid off the mortgage, untill then you’re more or less doing a complex rent-to-own from the bank.

Agreed. My options where I live are primarily rent or mortgage; there are intentional communities with equitable arrangements, but the waitlist is 5 to 10 years. And with rents here going up at about 8% to 12% per year, I chose the 3.7% mortgage. FWIW, most home sales in my area are industrial investors or second homes, which absolutely underscore your points regarding livability, financial violence, and

<waving around>

real estate is only a hedge against inflation in a society that is stratifying, becoming more inequitable

Again, fully agreed. Inflation is here. None of us are going to wish away inflation or predatory lending, because primate brain and "they" have our number. If one has interest rate arbitrage available, using it prudently leaves more disposable income, and therefore more time to strive for more equitable systems. For example, I am the treasurer for my regional timebank, and among my offered services are financial literacy, budgeting, and household bookkeeping. This won't surprise you at all: it's my most used offer (>100 hours used) and the number of people lacking these skills... it's almost like this system is designed for a certain scope and scale of financial ignorance.