I'm reading the handwringing diaries about how the poor American middle class has been snookered out of their hard-won money (always hard-won money from hard-working taxpayers.)
I don't think that's an accurate or helpful way to describe the situation, because it deflects attention from the actual problem.
What actually happened was that the great American anxiety machine took advantage of the immature psychology of the Lazy American Consumer and then the Cancer Philosophy Corporations convinced them using the techniques of the Immoral Psychologists that they could satisfy their fear avoidance needs by increasing their status by buying stuff, even if they couldn't conceivably afford it.
This worked until time came to pay, then all the believers in fairytales got the book slammed rudely in their faces, from little people in big people houses, to temporarily big people in runaway investment houses.
There was no shortage of warnings, but people looked away. That looking away was voluntary, and it fixes the blame on the averters of the gaze.
We live in an information saturated society. No one has the excuse they didn't know. We all knew. We disregarded. Too bad. No sympathy.