This increasingly harsh approach extends even to social services debt, argues author and former local government manager Blair McPherson.
(In this case, it will be medical debt, although Strike Debt argues that medical debt, student loan, and housing debt are so mixed up in each household's economics that it hardly matters).
We're bringing up other subjects, such as foreign policy and the debt, arguing that we can do better in lots of areas.
"Some politicians and economists present a false choice: reduce unemployment or stabilize the debt," argues a new bipartisan deficit plan that will be released Wednesday, the second such plan to come out in the last week.
Foiz Ahmed, a junior doctor in emergency plastic surgery (who is grappling with £30,000 debt) argues that the new contracts will strike a pernicious blow to the NHS and patient safety.
Some economists tend to dismiss the impact of debt, arguing that one person's liability is another person's asset; when M&G recently pointed out that global gross debt was approaching the $100 trillion mark, someone tweeted that net debt is still zero.
The top ten problems cited by the NFIB's members include "uncertainty over economic conditions", "uncertainty over government actions" and "frequent changes in federal tax laws and rules" (see table).Business-backed groups such as the Campaign to Fix the Debt argue that, in the medium term, Congress needs to bring America's swelling debts under control.
At a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, Ms. Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund urged the euro area to move swiftly toward a fiscal union that would include the issuance of some form of collective euro zone debt, arguing that the currency's viability was being put into question.
Had the government worried more about limiting spending than about the potential collapse of the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it might have triggered precisely the dark scenario that consumes those who worry most about growing American debt, argues Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Interest rates are low, and national assets are still a multiple of debt, arguing against a near-term tipping point.
