[softg]

The middle class thinks about its survival and keeping their assets intact. Building wealth is not possible for most people. But if you have money laying around, buying assets is the way to go, yes. Which is why the price of housing, cars, etc. skyrocketed. That in turn made buying assets even more attractive. Real estate prices grew in absolute terms (as in dollars) for the last few years.

The cheap loans I talked about aren't constant, for example you can't get them right now. They were available when the government artificially depressed the interest rate. A lot of people bought houses and cars that way and they are paying peanuts atm. The banks were/are still turning a profit because the interest rate was low, so the price of money was low for them as well. The government printed money to bankroll this growth until finally the lira crashed down. Basically everyone who earned in the local currency paid the price.