Of course, the way modern finance works means Polonius' view is somewhat outdated. Unless you keep your cash in a suitcase under the bed, then it will always be part of a system that shifts it between those with savings and those looking for finance. Indeed, credit flow is often viewed as one of the economy’s most critical measures of health - without it, businesses can't invest and grow and consumers can't buy houses or cars.
What's more, if you invest in funds or pensions, there is a high chance that you will be a part owner in a bank or two, and will be beneficiaries of the gradual return to something approaching business as usual. Some of you may even hold shares in another successful lender, Provident Financial. It provides finance to those with patchy credit histories and, like current tabloid bête noir Wonga, has come in for criticism for the high rates of interest it charges on its products - an average of around 40 per cent on its Vanquis credit card, but sometimes far higher.
In reality, few will ever end up paying this annualised figure; they'll either have paid their loan back quickly or defaulted long before then, and the amount of people happy to use such services suggests they are useful to those living a more hand to mouth existence - like the thousands working on zero hours contract perhaps. For them, surely a service like Wonga is a preferable alternative to the unsavoury loan sharks who'd happily break their legs should they fail to pay up on time.
Moreover, there is fundamentally nothing wrong with borrowing, assuming of course that debts can be paid back - indeed, while the credit crisis was caused by reckless lending compounded by financial engineering, the vast majority of residential borrowers continued to service their loans, knowing full well how much they could afford to borrow.
It's the same with the companies we cover, and debt is sometimes a more affordable way of financing a business than equity - take Dignity, for example. And provided companies generate the cash flows to pay it back without impinging on their ability to invest and pay dividends, it's no great evil. That's a view supported by the track records of the UK's most consistent dividend 'aristocrats', as highlighted in our cover feature this week - the majority hold substantial debt, yet have increased their dividends every year for at least a quarter of a century.
