"William S.: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be"."
First of all, that was Poor Richard (Ben Franklin).
Secondly, without debt, there would be vastly fewer homeowners, millions fewer vehicles, far, far fewer businesses, etc. By the way, what pays the interest on savings investments--that's right, debt. Without debt, TRILLIONS of interest-bearing products would simply not exist.
You say debt is bad. I say bad debt is bad, and that, without any debt, you would not recognize our world at all.
Nope sorry that was Billy himself:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
A line from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Polonius, a garrulous old man, gives this advice to his son.
First of all, that was Poor Richard (Ben Franklin).
No, it was Polonius, from Hamlet. Thus, Shakespeare. If it appeared in Poor Richard, Franklin got the quote from Shakespeare - we can take if for granted that Franklin was familiar with those plays.
Although, it is worth pointing out that Polonius was intended as a blowhard, and his advice was not something anyone should actually follow. It was, in short, an ironic speech.
Drew Garrett