Several hundred years in the future, when people look back at our way of life, they might wonder why we chose to give up physical slavery only to submit ourselves to financial slavery. Through the debt we have on our mortgage, credit cards and our overdraft, we have chosen to enslave ourselves to jobs that we would never do if we had a free choice. For those people who have a reasonably good job and standard of living, that might sound an extreme way of describing the situation. However for those people who are struggling to make ends meet, are deeply in debt and have to do jobs that they really hate, it might make more sense. Maybe we can invent a better way of doing things. In the meantime, we need to make sure that debt is fair. There must be a strict limit on the rates of interest or fees that people can be asked to pay so that that debt cannot spiral out of control. No one should be made to pay more interest or charges than the amount they have actually borrowed. Those who exploit the poor and vulnerable by giving them loans that they can ill afford must pay a price for these irresponsible loans. When people get themselves in debt to the degree that they could not possibly repay it, and where their lives are blighted by it, the debt must be discharged through bankruptcy. This must be done in a fair way that deters game-playing but protects the vulnerable. Next time we have a massive financial crisis, the economic stimulus money should be given first to the poor and middle classes to erase their debts, rather than printing money which inflates asset prices, making the rich richer and increasing inequality. Not only would that be more ethical, it would be a much more effective stimulus to the economy.