Comments on: Debt, Credit and the Virtuous Life

By: Dean

Dean — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:17:01 +0000

Excellent article, spot on. I'll share an article that I wrote about a similar theme, entitled "The Costs Of False Compassion", which references a book by an Acton alum, Jay Richards, entitled "Money, Greed and God". That book also touches upon many of the issues here. Please keep writing on these topics -- they are vital to the continued health of our country and our world, the world within which the message of the Christian church is forced to operate.

By: Chrys

Chrys — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:22:33 +0000

Good article. Debt/credit (i.e., using OPM – other people’s money) is always a moral issue. I would draw a minor distinction based on the nature of debt.

Capital debt (Capex) is an investment in the future and so inherently reflects a measure of confidence.
Consumer debt allows us to borrow from tomorrow to consume today. (Wimpy would be thrilled.) At the worst, it consumes tomorrow’s seed corn today.
The first uses credit to expand capability and output – that is to increase efficient effort.
The second allows us to indulge ourselves NOW and this makes all the difference. Ultimately, it may be driven by and reflect our appetites.
We see this same posture on display when it comes time to pay the piper.
The first rarely vilify lenders because they understand the nature of a contract and their own responsibility;
the second often seem to vilify lenders, perhaps because they may have been serving their appetites to begin with.

In the end though, the differences are but a matter of degree.
For either way, according to Nassim Taleb, leverage (debt) is a measure of hubris.

I think he is right.

By: George Michalopulos

George Michalopulos — Fri, 14 May 2010 19:44:34 +0000

BTW, Cashill is a great investigative journalist. He wrote a wonderful book called Hoodwinked about 6 years ago. He examines many of the modern pieties that have animated the Progressive movement and blasts them apart. We're talking things like the Sacco and Vanzetti exoneration movement, the fraudulent research that Alfred Kinsey permormed, the myth of heterosexual AIDS, etc. Well-written and entertaining.

By: Harry Coin

Harry Coin — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:48:32 +0000

Brief summary: The closer the currency’s monetary unit (dinar, dollar, drachma, yen, euro) approximates ‘a quantum of actual trust among people’ — the better the society does.