Neither is debt real, but we believe in it just the same and build our society around it. There are arguments to be made for debt and monotheism to go hand in hand, especially when debt is seen as sin.
Debt might not be a physical thing, but it’s nonetheless real. Just as god is real. Not as a physical object or person, but as a concept. Both exist in the minds of billions of people. The big difference is, that the overwhelming majority of all people believe in (more or less) the same concept of debt, whereas different people believe in thousands of different concepts of god.
If I don’t like the version of god you believe in, I can just go to the next sect and believe in their version. Or I can just start my own cult or stop believing in any god. If I have debt, I’ll have a hard time finding another bank that doesn’t believe in it. If I make up my own version of debt and say that you owe me a thousand moneys, it’ll be hard to convince anyone that that’s true. And even if I refuse the concept of debt altogether, it won’t stop the bailiff from knocking on my door.
In that sense, debt is much more real than god. At least nowadays, and in countries that have religious freedom.
What’s a lot more flexible is the concept of money. That goes from chalk lines on a slate to distributed digital numbers. Sure, debt can be a near sacred thing but when the currency in which the debt is denominated can simply be created by one party it’ll results in an unbalanced system.
Neither is debt real, but we believe in it just the same and build our society around it. There are arguments to be made for debt and monotheism to go hand in hand, especially when debt is seen as sin.
I’m starting to feel like you’re not gonna pay me back that $10.
Debt might not be a physical thing, but it’s nonetheless real. Just as god is real. Not as a physical object or person, but as a concept. Both exist in the minds of billions of people. The big difference is, that the overwhelming majority of all people believe in (more or less) the same concept of debt, whereas different people believe in thousands of different concepts of god.
If I don’t like the version of god you believe in, I can just go to the next sect and believe in their version. Or I can just start my own cult or stop believing in any god. If I have debt, I’ll have a hard time finding another bank that doesn’t believe in it. If I make up my own version of debt and say that you owe me a thousand moneys, it’ll be hard to convince anyone that that’s true. And even if I refuse the concept of debt altogether, it won’t stop the bailiff from knocking on my door.
In that sense, debt is much more real than god. At least nowadays, and in countries that have religious freedom.
What’s a lot more flexible is the concept of money. That goes from chalk lines on a slate to distributed digital numbers. Sure, debt can be a near sacred thing but when the currency in which the debt is denominated can simply be created by one party it’ll results in an unbalanced system.