Exactly, when I invest in you, I may require equity in your business, but that's basically me buying my share of your success, or your failure. Risk is factured in, and if you generate cash flow, I take a percentage of it. But you're not in debt to me.

And curiously, when you take a loan to buy a house. The house doesn't really appreciate in value. The house's dollar value rises as much as the dollar itself depreciates through inflation. Houses don't generate value.

That's why I laugh at boomers who think themselves major investors for owning homes valued at millions of dollars today, but having bought them for a couple of $1000s in the 1960s.