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Personal Debt

Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze

鈥淣either a borrower nor a lender be,鈥 advised Shakespeare鈥檚 Polonius. These words seem hopelessly out of touch in cost of living crisis with soaring inflation and astronomical levels of personal debt. The charity StepChange has warned that money borrowed by UK households to pay for Christmas could take years to repay. Meanwhile, a study by the Resolution Foundation suggests the British public are the worst in the developed world at saving. How did we get here?

For some, our eye-popping indebtedness begins with a failure of personal responsibility, an absence of prudence, and an inability to discern between our 鈥榳ants鈥 and needs鈥. For others, the real problem is systemic, where borrowers are victims of a consumerist society that both pressurises and stigmatises the poorest. Pragmatists argue that debt itself is morally neutral and merely part of the furniture of modern life. Free market libertarians see debt as a democratising force, giving people greater personal agency. Whereas many religious and philosophical traditions have long believed that there is something intrinsically immoral about charging interest on lending.

Is debt inevitable? Or a moral failing? If so, whose?

Producer: Dan Tierney.

Available now

43 minutes

Last on

Sat 21 Jan 2023 22:15

Broadcasts

  • Wed 18 Jan 2023 20:00
  • Sat 21 Jan 2023 22:15

The Evidence Toolkit

The Evidence Toolkit

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