The evergreen story of people in debt becomes even sexier in an economic downturn, when debts inevitably get harder to pay.

By reshaping or decorating our outer selves, we express our inner sense of self: 'I like that' becomes 'I'm like that.'

We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.

He who feels pain when paying off debts is not fit to leverage on debts as an investment strategy

Socialism is about claims of justice, and it is also about money: about wealth, income, physical and financial capital. It is an ideology based on allocating economic resources. It may try to achieve that goal by nationalizing assets, by command-and-control regulation, or by taxation and redistribution.

As borrowers, we may feel guilty about running up debt, anxious about making payments, and resentful of the constraints that old obligations (and old credit records) impose on our current choices. We may find it too easy to buy things we may later regret.