We had no savings in 1993. Lending between relatives and neighbours was slowly disappearing, in part because there was now the possibility of travelling abroad, or of spending what one saved, which had seldom been the case in the past. And in part because people’s incomes had started to differ sharply so there was a risk that knocking on someone’s door to ask for help might single you out as a loser. What used to be called ‘workplace lotteries’, a form of credit pulled together through voluntary contributions from salaries to help colleagues buy a washing machine or a television set, were also
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