The need to service those debts has further knock-on effects, such as reducing food budgets, leading to decreased nutrition, higher levels of stress, etc, etc.

In short - it's nothing close to the whole story, but there are real effects here, with real consequences, that we've known about for a long time.

The "Vimes Boots" formulation of it may be a bit glib, but there are still plenty of people who have never thought about any of this that it could a useful starting point for.  /4