Debt is the material representation of the idea that we are guilty for existing, and we need to pay to share this space with other entities. If you are in debt others have told you that you must cease to exist until you have provided them with a resource of value, primarily paper.
Money and paper has no intrinsic value and can be produced cheaply; yet, the value we assign these things is a value often envied and talked about. And this value in something worthless can often be used to gain things that have objective value, whether vain and unique or practical and common.