Summary
Debt: we live in a culture of credit with a dramatic surge in private borrowing due to wage stagnation over several decades. Many people will now be indebted until death. Johnna Montgomerie,Reader in International Political Economy King's College London, tells Laurie Taylor why she proposes the abolition of household debt in the context of a chronically dysfunctional situation, both individually and collectively. Also, the story of the National Debt. Martin Slater, Emeritus Fellow in Economics at the University of Oxford, explores its changing fortunes and role in shaping the course of British history. How has Britain been moulded by attempts to break fee of the debt, from post war Keynesian economics to today's austerity?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.2 | I'm Laurie Taylor and this is the Radio 4 podcast for thinking aloud. |
| 0:40.5 | That took me about four seconds to say. And in that time the UK national debt rose by |
| 0:47.0 | 20,000 pounds. Grounds for concern. Find out. |
| 0:51.0 | A penny a kiss. a penny a hug. |
| 0:55.0 | We're gonna save our pennies in a big brown jug. |
| 0:58.0 | Hello, we didn't have a big brown jug at home when I was growing up, but Mother regularly urged us to put |
| 1:04.8 | our spare pennies in a red letterbox savings tin. |
| 1:09.7 | And when savings were such a familial imperative, higher purchase or any other form of indebtedness |
| 1:15.6 | was tantamount in our house to mortal sin. Well it was an attitude towards borrowed money |
| 1:21.2 | that still resonates even as my current |
| 1:23.4 | mortgage repayments stretch away into infinity and my wallet fair ripples with |
| 1:27.8 | credit cards I can still feel a free son of alarm and I learned that the |
| 1:32.0 | national debt is alarm and I learned that the national debt is increasing. |
| 1:34.6 | When I learn it has tripled in the last 10 years, when I learn it is currently rising by 5,170 pounds per second and that nothing nothing at all seems to modify its |
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