In many Germanic languages, the commonly used word for “debt” also means “guilt”, which carries a strong moral connotation. Commentators have long suspected that this linguistic overlap may lead to greater debt aversion. Former French finance minister Bruno Le Maire invoked this idea to explain Germany’s fiscal conservatism: “In Germany, debt is ‘die Schuld’. It’s both the financial debt and the fault. There’s a kind of guilt in debt.” The Economist (2015) similarly observed that “this mental link helps explain Germany’s peculiar concern with borrowing money”.
Philosophers and linguists have long argued that language does more than describe reality – it shapes how…