Much of the foundation of America was built upon the backs of slaves, as well as many others that were exploited so that some would become immensely wealthy and powerful at the expense of the people as a whole. While slavery has been outlawed for a considerable amount of time in America, and while laws have in theory, banned imprisonment for monetary debt; in point of fact, America day-by-day, is regressing to a country of the few that own and rule everything, whereas the many, are either incarcerated, or left hopeless, or seemingly permanently in debt.
There are a lot of ways to control the masses, of which, the combination of the law as dictated by those elites that run the show, in conjunction with the boots on the ground that enforce such, is part and parcel of what is done in many developing countries around the world. Because, America is in theory, a vibrant democracy, as well as the exemplar to the world, they must mask what is actually happening to the people by successfully selling the illusion that this is a country of freedom, opportunity, and liberty, of which those propagating such do a somewhat admirable job in that achievement, for many believe exactly that, even when their personal situation, belies such.
So then, the tricks of the trade as practiced in America, really comes down to using access to wages, income, and assets as a cudgel to keep the people in their place. For instance, as unions for private enterprise in America have become eviscerated, those jobs are replaced with far inferior wages and weakened benefits that don't come close to providing the income and security needed for a middle class family to vibrantly exist, in which the carrot is always just in front of those employees, telling them that given enough time, and enough corresponding profit and market share, that their wages will improve, as long as they are sufficiently patient. So too, the government insists that the good paying jobs, necessitate an education that is beyond free public schooling, and hence requires that individuals pay for their own higher education, out of their own pocket, of which, the monetary credit so extended to these credulous students is ever and ever higher, and the debt so created for that education, which may not even result in a graduate degree or a degree of any value, results in a staggering amount of debt to thus be carried, at a very young age.
So too, whereas it use to be, in order to get a loan, one had to prove that they had a steady job, and solid roots within their community; nowadays credit cards are issued to just about anyone, in which proof of income, seems to be an afterthought, of which those issuing the credit cards, have sophisticated models, in which, they are able to make an exceedingly handsome profit off of those high interest rates charged to their customers, when the cost of money for those providing that credit has never been lower; along with penalties, and fees so charged for those that violate their terms, in which the end result is that those receiving that credit, suffer greatly from that debt load, which never lightens.
The end result is that millions upon millions of Americans are greatly indebted, and hence are in debt peonage to those that own and control that debt, never to get ahead, never to actually own much of anything, and caught within a construct in which they are perpetually chained to those that are their masters, who essentially own them and their labor, which enriches and continues to empower them at the debtors' expense.