You said this was different than borrowing money you don’t have. IRL nobody secures loans with thin air, never have… it’s always collateralized against something they can take from you either now or in the future. You leverage yourself and take a bet that you can pay it off (and/or in these cases, that the volatile asset you’re borrowing against goes UP within the timeframe of the loan). The risk/reward asymmetry still favors the debtor. So it’s really not that different.