A terrible little truth

That’s because all persons have responsibilities.

That’s different. :rofl:

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I think capitalism is a pretty good argument. Theft at gunpoint is a bad argument.

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It’s no judgement on anyone else. It’s things I think of when debt is discussed. I was as poor as poor gets from about 17 to 21 years old. Sleeping in storm drains, homeless shelters, etc…

When I think back on it, I can remember the sheer feeling of dependency and always being in debt to others. It grossed me out then and it grosses me out now; but prolonged living like that, I can’t help but wonder how it would’ve affected my middle-aged outlook.

On a related note, I never developed a hard drug addiction during those tumultuous years. Thinking back on it, I’m convinced I would’ve never made it out alive had I picked one up.

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Fair point, but that isn’t how view that situation.

And AGAIN, I didn’t say that malum prohibitum means we don’t care about it.

Cool, but that’s neither here nor there.

Yes, but you “lost” it as soon as you gave it to me.

Not what I mean. I mean that it can be used to argue for mutually exclusive policies, like enforcing debt (“it’s your fault for not paying it back”) and not enforcing debt (“it’s your fault for lending it”).

> capitalism

That’s not an argument, that’s a label.

Non-repayment of debt can’t be theft (and no, I don’t care that the law might consider it that). You need some other word for it.

No I didn’t. I know exactly where it is.

You don’t appear to view debt as a good. I loan you $10, I get $11 back over time. The good you purchased with your name was the $10 you didn’t have. You used your time to make the $10 + $1 that you returned to me. The $1 was payment for my services. Otherwise, you’d have had to wait until Thursday to eat that sandwich you were eyeballing Tuesday.

That is unless you just stole the sandwich.

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Debt is everywhere, and it’s sad.

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So you start with an argument that no one loses anything, then shift to an argument that when the lender loses the money not repaid, too bad, so sad.

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Fraud…

Repaying debt is normally part of polite society-just like “No Usury” (should be) is part of polite society.

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It’s a terrible feeling to be crushed by debt and letting “credit” run your life. But it’s a hole you can climb out of.in the twinkling of an eye.

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Meanwhile the trades face critical manpower shortages as workers age out.

Kids could make a killing being a plumber or HVAC specialist, etc

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Not really relevant to this discussion but something to keep an eye on going forward.

Debt is essentially us bringing future consumption and making it happen now.

Debt creates money out of thin air, with the exception of the interest you owe upon paying it back.

For both these reasons, debt as currently structured requires real economic growth to work.

Again…something to watch…

It’s not thin air, someone holds the receipts in the form of treasury bonds. We have three options, pay it off/down, owe more, or default. The first two pays the holders of those bonds and allows us to continue funding US operations no matter how trifling. Defaulting wipes us out and takes away our dominance in the global economy.

We’ve lived in option 2 flirting with option 3 for a good 20+ years.

No, it’s literally thin air.

The bank holds the loan on its books as an asset, and your deposit account is a liability.