I think I have found an historical analogue to the contemporary phenomenon of unrelentingly increasing student debt for Americans
in ancient states, women are legally recognized as property - if they're property, that means you can take out loans using them as collateral - some men take out loans using their wives as collateral to start their professions, e.g. buying a farm to sell grain
at first, this works very well - many men take out loans, they build new farms and businesses, productivity expands, prosperity blooms - but eventually diminishing returns hit, but not before a generation or two of men have their wives repo'd by the lenders
lenders end up with a glut of female slaves, price of female prostitution falls as supply increases, the cities that form the center of these lending networks become infamous for debauchery, misery, and causing many young men's ruin whose wives they repo'd
sooner or later this makes those cities deeply hated by an overwhelming majority of the populace around them, and sooner or later some elites who are in debt can't pay and decide "fuck it, we'll rile up our people and go fuck them up, then we don't have to pay them back"
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