We're getting a good reminder these days of why it's not so good to be in debt. Businesses are struggling and failing because they've over leveraged themselves. Individuals are losing their houses because they can't make their payments. Our government is borrowing money to solve all of these problems so we don't experience a more drastic economic collapse.
But there were times when the consequences for debt were even more severe. Charles Dickens wrote many semi-autobiographical novels in which he talked about the consequences of debt. His own father spent time in debtor's prison. Yes, you used to go prison (and a very unpleasant prison at that) if you managed to get in debt and then couldn't pay the money back. How anyone ever thought they'd get the money back if they threw the debtor in prison is beyond me, I guess they expected the families to pay them back to get their loved ones out of prison.
Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has written about the comparisons between our current economic crisis and the one in 19Th century England that inspired much of Dickens's work. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty grateful that our economic crisis likely won't result in the same level of social issues.
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