This is another of those articles that will expand as I pick up more data.
I am trying to get an overall picture and not just "label" some countries.
My views on debt are known and expressed elsewhere on this blog. That I do not have a polite word for it is obvious.
First examples are the easy ones to find - I am researching stuff on Germany, the Netherlands, France and other major European countries. I will add details when I find them.
A couple of articles from the UK to start with:
www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/business/worldbusiness/22debt.html
This is from 2008 and things could be a lot worse now given the recession.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDWE60iTAwE
This reminds me of 1971 when the only job that a friend of mine, fresh out of university, could find was as a debt collector (great job, eh?).
People should not take out the debt if they cannot afford it? So what happens to the consumer society? People buy less on credit, therefore people sell less, companies make fewer profits, jobs disappear, people earn less, people then take out debt necessarily to pay the rent and buy food (if their do not live on the street and get fed by charities). This is the ultimate vicious cycle, folks, how do you break it?
Work out how we get away from this. At my age it is perhaps only a short-term problem as I will not live that much longer, but for the generations to come?
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