Breaking the Chains

A Financial Revolution for Punjab’s Generation Z

- Pushpinder Singh Gill

Punjab has already been crippled once by political borrowing that ballooned into a mountain of public debt. As if that burden wasn’t enough, its young citizens are now stumbling into a second, more personal debt trap—seduced by Buy Now Pay Later apps, migration loans, and the endless hunger to display status.

It is a double whammy: shackled by the state’s fiscal sins and chained by their own borrowing choices, the youth risk inheriting not prosperity but a lifetime of repayments. What our grandparents fought against with blood and courage, we are surrendering to quietly with clicks and swipes.

So here is the real test: will you keep working just to pay for yesterday's purchases? Will you keep mortgaging your future to impress people who don't even care? Will you keep mistaking debt for progress while your freedom evaporates in instalments? Or will you, at last, break the cycle—save, build, and reclaim dignity from the very corporations and lenders who profit from your weakness? Ask yourself now: are you owning your life, or is your life owning you?

The chains of debt today are invisible but unrelenting. Globally, Gen Z faces the same assault. In the United States, people under 30 carry record credit card debt, with delinquencies rising sharply. In the UK, nearly half of 18-24-year-olds use Buy Now Pay Later services, often juggling multiple accounts. Australia has forced BNPL providers under national credit laws, requiring affordability checks, fee caps, hardship assistance, and dispute resolution mechanisms. These numbers are not abstract; they are a warning: corporations everywhere are preying on the youngest consumers, and Punjab is no exception. If others are losing freedom this way, why should you be next?