A few factors have certainly changed in the recent past. For one, the moral concern that surrounded debt, even into the second half of the 20th century, has evaporated. While Madame Bovary and Bleak House vividly illustrated the deep moral, personal and social costs of debt and the system of corrosive obligations it put in place, today debt is almost compulsory, and certainly expected. Many an individual's first adult economic experience is taking out a loan to secure an education, or a car (necessary to drive to work), or, less often now, a home loan.

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 196