This isn't a moral fault of Americans as much as it is effective lobbying and marketing by the financial industry. The government subsidies student debt and mortgages, which the financial industry trades and collects fees for servicing.

Corporate debt is tax deductible, for terrible economic reasons. Why should raising money through debt be tax deductible, but not through selling equity? My finance prof. told me these were ultimately the same thing. One kind of transaction has a strong lobby behind it. This causes all kinds of problems of excessive leverage in our system.