system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do we rely so heavily on bank loans, what happened to saving up money for a car or home over time?
gpt
>Why is the idea of saving up for these large expenses not popular?

Well, for a house, it's almost impossible for anyone to save up enough money, because people generally need a house *now*, but need decades to save the funds necessary.  Plus, if you start saving for a house, you're going to have to pay rent for an apartment in the meantime, and that may be almost as much as a mortgage payment.  So saving up to buy a house rather than getting a mortgage can end up costing you **more** over the long run.

Cars are a bit different, but it depends on the buyer's financial situation.  For most people, they have to get their first car based on a loan, because they don't have any money (most people's first cars are to allow them to commute to their first job).  After that, it's entirely possible for *some* people to save up enough to buy their next car without a loan, but not all people will earn enough to be able to save that much money by the time that their old car is causing enough maintenance issues to indicate that getting a new car would be cheaper than maintaining their old one.