Ramsey professes an anti-debt absolutism, claiming no one should ever use credit cards or 30-year mortgages, because of debt’s long-term economic and personal costs. But this advice is of limited value in a disaster-prone economy where workers have had their share of the pie whittled down year after year, to the point that 29 percent of Americans now say they could not pay an emergency cost of over $400. Turning to debt at such moments is tough to avoid, but Ramsey portrays it to his massive listener base as a personal failing, and offers dubious advice to get out of it.

Ramsey’s debt absolutist line is extreme, even by the standards of the massive personal finance guru marketplace. He insists that you don’t need credit cards, that your credit rating is therefore meaningless, and he argues that families should only buy a house with a 15-year mortgage and down payment of at least 10 percent.

But 15-year mortgages come with far higher monthly payments, and avoiding all other debt is often impossible for many people, from accident victims to consumers confronting inflation. To look back at the stagnating buying power of the median U.S. household over the last several decades, it’s just fatuous to contend that people can realistically go without debt. How people are supposed to cope with the evaporation of income after being laid off, or clear the mountain of medical bills left from an accident or illness, is only lightly addressed on Ramsey’s show.

Instead, Ramsey broadly adopts a standard “you’ll get rich if you work hard, and won’t if you’re lazy” view.

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Discussing callers in their 70s who describe needing to work late in life due to a lack of savings, Ramsey said people need to simply spend less when they’re young, and that for younger people these calls should be “God’s direct slap” as a wakeup call for you—so the lives of these elderly citizens are just God’s tools for educating us.