CNBC asks experts from sociology, philosophy, history and other fields who gets access to 'good debt', meaning borrowing that helps build wealth, and finds that affordable credit has never been equally available. Princeton sociologist Frederick Wherry describes the 'Matthew effect', under which wealthier people are more likely to have good debt, while the middle class is hit hardest because it is largely left on its own. Philosopher Graham Hubbs says good debt is tied to happiness but is becoming harder to reach as home and college costs rise faster than incomes. Historian Louis Hyman says attitudes shifted from viewing all debt as bad to embracing installment lending from the 1920s, and describes access to credit as a two-tier system.
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