[ArkyBeagle]

Because people are bloody minded animals.

This is a survey: http://mappingignorance.org/2013/03/20/experiments-in-fairne...

The seminal experiment is Kahneman around 1986. I fail at finding a good treatise on it. But here's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory

And as applied directly to econ: http://www.econ.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:ffffffff-9758-127f-0000-00005...

The banks are simply our agents in this. Roughly, other "innovations" have made debt more dangerous over time. My paltry understanding is that one of the uses of inflation is to erode the value of debt.

We don't have meaningful inflation any more. And yes, I relaize how bizarre that sounds. But: http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/3212.html

Something terrible has happened to the tradeoff between the balance sheet and cash flow. A really crummy analogy is position v. velocity on quantum realms; as competitiveness has escalated, we get to where the trade between them is more severe. Also IMO, much as wages have stagnated, the value of capital goods has also.