I am pretty certain that most banks in this country have bought into the whole corporate citizenship thing and while I entirely agree that debt is the responsibility of those that incur it, I do wonder how unsolicited mailshots telling you you have "pre-qualified" for a loan amount of say €10,000 but must avail of it by a set date aligns with good citizenship. They had to be persuaded to give up on the "Congratulations, you have qualified for a limit increase. You new limit is..." approach to making valuable customers, again this doesn't ring true in my mind with good citizenship. The subtle message of these methods is that it is okay for you to take on extra debt, the bank believes in your ability to repay. While this may not convince everyone, people believe in banks and trust their pronouncements on a persons fitness to carry debt. Historically debt would have been more difficult for an ordinary citizen to incur because they would have had to try harder for a loan and would have been harder pressed to repay it. Susceptible people find it easier nowadays to fall into debt, it does not mean they should be mollycoddled but perhaps lending institutions do bear a social responsibility towards their vulnerable customers and it would seem from anecdote (and probably evidence but I can't quote anything so I won't) that this is not being exercised.
Also, we are more exposed to debt in every day transactions, cashless systems where you are not handing over notes and coins can mean that people are less aware of what they are spending and less conscious of and connected to debts that they owe. Sudden prosperity, cashless systems and easy credit has resulted in a generation of avid consumers and willing, perhaps unaware, risk-takers. Although it is most certainly not confined to that generation, it is most prevalent there. I think part of the problem certainly was (and maybe still is) a lack of basic education on money management, their parents would have had for the most part a much smaller set of credit options and a more limited opportunity to avail of them and it wasn't a core part of the school curriculum. This puts naive people in a disadvantaged position.
Of course there is always the small number who appear to view the world as their oyster and the bill as someone elses problem, but not all people in trouble in debt are these people.
The founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunnus, believes that credit should be a human right, I would agree but we need to ensure that the correct education is provided early in life teaching that credit is a tool and not a habit.
