While I fully agree that financial debt is easier to measure, and some forms of it are very easy to measure, I don't think it is always very easy to measure. Perhaps it may be a difference in what counts as debt, but I see many people engaging in decisions that require future payments without considering those payments at all, much less viewing them as debt. For example, getting a pet dog can have numerous costs associated with it but people don't always consider these as debt. And the average person (fully based on my own personal anecdotes) isn't going to be willing to give up the dog just because it is costing them money. So while there isn't a legal due that you can be taken to court for, I still think it counts as a form of debt.