Meanwhile, the dream of middle-class inclusion has seen workers and other citizens borrow from the market to buy homes (mortgages), education (student loans) and consumer goods (credit cards) in the hopes of achieving class mobility or maintaining middle-class status (Bryan and Rafferty 2009). And, as multiple levels of government have sought to compete with other locales by cutting taxes, they have covered the shortfall (when not slashing spending) by borrowing, injecting trillions of dollars into financial markets (McNally 2011, 106).

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 150