What do frivolous credit and public trash have in common?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Immediately I will make a reservation that I DO NOT take any extreme positions in relation to taking a loan with interest, such as "strictly not" or "I highly approve." Yes, I do not like the usurious system of relations, but, firstly, people are happy to support it and the culture is such that most of them are in fact not ready for interest-free loans. Secondly, we all know that sometimes a life situation forces us to take out a loan, even in spite of its unpleasant consequences for the borrower. God forbid anyone such difficult life situations, pushing for a loan.

However, my observations show that often a loan is taken lightly, simply because a person wants something, and this “want”, thanks to the well-known cognitive distortion, called “confirmation bias”, quickly becomes overgrown with “iron” arguments that further warm the person up and make it almost impossible to give up what he wants. A thing suddenly becomes vital in the eyes of a person, occupies the top priority in his system of motivation, and absolutely nothing can be done. The loan will be taken for sure.

I would like to criticize this approach today, comparing it to the throwing away of garbage by tourists in public places of recreation. Don't believe it can be done easily? Then please read my arguments. It will focus on the psychodynamics of society.

Many people understand what a loan threatens them personally: a large general overpayment for goods, painful payments for several years, a feeling of slavery and other unpleasant emotions. Especially when the euphoria from the purchased item has already passed, and five to ten years of payment for "it is not clear what" is still ahead. However, there is less obvious harm from a loan with interest, which manifests itself if you go beyond the boundaries of personal comfort and look at the situation more deeply.

Surely some readers have seen the cartoon "Fabian: I want the whole world and 5 percent more", look if anyone has not seen it yet. There are described many disadvantages of loans, including the disadvantage that due to loans, the inflation rate increases, since money appears in the economy that did not exist before and is not backed by labor or some kind of product.

They simply appear “out of thin air” only due to the fact that someone else’s money has been leased to you, and the procedure for leasing money in itself is not labor or the creation of any product. The borrower is forced to raise the value of his product or labor in order to recover the debt and interest, and here it is - inflation.

Suppose that someone took out a loan, which means that they created additional money in the economy, which slightly increased the inflation rate (which, in turn, could affect the increase in the loan rate).

Once the inflation rate has increased, it means that ALL other people have slightly lost what they earned. At the time of this writing, I went to one of the online services on inflation and saw that over the past 2 years it was 8%. In other words, if 2 years ago I earned one hundred thousand rubles and put it “under the pillow”, then eight thousand have already been taken away from me. They took away my work, which is secured by this money.

Who took it away? No one will give a direct answer, but those who support frivolous loans with interest are indirectly to blame for this. These people build their emotional well-being on the misfortune of other people, as if indirectly taking away from them the results of their labor, enshrined in monetary form. That is, they act on the principle “if only I feel good, even at the cost of the fact that everyone else will get a little worse, they will not lose anything.”

Someone may object: "Well, good, but I am a drop in the ocean, you will lose ten kopecks from my loan, do you feel sorry for that?" The shameless tourist argues in the same way, who thinks that the bottle he left in the forest / on the beach / in the park will not make a dump, he thinks that the bottle will somehow "dissolve" there by itself or "someone will take it away."

But I once drove across the Crimea and at every point equipped as a resting place, I always saw heaps of garbage at a distance. But who left each such heap? No one! Each stupid tourist left a little bit, he did not throw out any heap. This is already a heap in the amount.

Thus, shitting in the economy and shitting on the beach is essentially the same process, which people justify in the same way, only the form of manifestation of this process is different. The common thing is that a person puts his comfort first, and mentally tries to reduce the degree of his atrocity in two main ways: (1) "I am a drop in the ocean, no one will notice" and (2) "everyone does this, than I am worse ? ". There is, however, a third excuse: "once - not … in general, not scary."

This process, in which people do what everyone likes, and everyone else pays for it (including him later) is called "psychodynamics." It manifests itself everywhere.

Here's a joke example:

In the village, before the feast, it was decided to collect a barrel of vodka to draw from it during the celebration. Each resident was told to buy a bottle of vodka and pour it into a barrel. And they did just that. At the holiday, it turned out that there was clean water in the barrel. Of course, everyone thought that his bottle of water would dissolve in a barrel of vodka and no one would notice the deception.

But these are jokes, but here is a real example: "Your own car gives freedom and independence" - so it seems it was fashionable to say 20 years ago? Open any online traffic jam service in major cities and take another look at the words "freedom" and "independence" from this angle.

Also look at the photos of the courtyards of large houses (where there is no underground parking). Moreover, during the holiday periods it is absolutely impossible to drive even on popular suburban roads, it is enough to block one lane for repairs (and over a thousand kilometers there will be 100% of such repairs, and more than one), and a traffic jam of at least 10 km is ensured, and once I came across a situation where, due to a pedestrian crossing, the length of the traffic jam was 24 km.

The passage connected the seashore and the hotel complex, the flow of people went back and forth continuously, the drivers were required to stand for several minutes each until a "gap" appeared in the flow of tourists.

Once again: this is called "psychodynamics" - everyone lives the way they live, but the feedback from the TOTAL of people's actions is locked in the whole society. Everyone wanted a car to drive freely and independently on the roads - now everyone sits in traffic jams freely and independently, because everyone thought only about themselves, and not about society.

As a result, society suffers, villages cut by the highway like a knife blade are thrown by their inhabitants due to the impossibility of living in round-the-clock noise and dust, and this problem of society then returns to each individual person, and even to the one who does not have a car and who does not seem to to blame.

By the way, the availability of cars and the destruction of public transport (relative to its original power 30 years ago) is also a merit of a quick and thoughtless loan. I WANT A CAR - ON, GET, enjoy:) In a year: I WANT ANOTHER … type in the search engine "parks of unsold cars" …

But this is someone's work, resources, bright hopes and particles of joy. But it is outdated because credit made it possible to buy a new one every year or two.

Thoughtless credit, when "I want" wins common sense - is stealing money from other people, devaluing their labor for their own sake, and also a catalyst for accelerated consumption with rapid obsolescence and, as a result, stupid burning of resources.

Likewise, leaving garbage on the beach means quickly “solving” your problem, that is, shifting onto other people your discomfort from the fact that you have to bring garbage to the proper place (God forbid, even take it in a clean car!). Better to let someone else do it, right? And this, guys, is already called parasitism.

A justified loan is when a vital circumstance really has developed and someone risks dying or experiencing another tragedy if they do not take out a loan. This is NOT theft of money from society anymore. Why?

Society should be a cohesive, unified organism that maintains itself in health. Is it so difficult for each member of society to donate ten kopecks for the sake of their companion-in-arms to be alive and well? This ally will return the debt to society by the fact that, remaining alive, he will work and create benefits.

You donate money to your favorite bloggers, artists, children in need of treatment, and against the background of these useful expenses, one more useful waste will really not be noticed. But you must admit that when you forcibly "donate" thousands, or even tens of thousands of rubles a year just for the sake of someone buying a show-off or exaggerated comfort (in excess of what is necessary for a mentally healthy person), then this is some kind of wrong sacrifice, I am against such sacrifices. And you?

The reader will be unjustly offended if I doused him with cold water and did not offer a warm towel. To begin with, I appeal to readers who have caught themselves thinking that they have made rash credit in their lives for their own pleasure.

I do not blame you, because before you did not think about harming society and building well-being on the misfortune of others, but now you know; moreover, now you know that these circumstances return to you through feedback chains, and knowledge in itself provides an excellent opportunity to fix everything.

Awareness of the problem and a clear understanding of its causes is already a joy, because there is an opportunity to grow above oneself and become better. But that's not all the fun. As a gift for realizing yourself as a respectable member of society, who voluntarily refused to rob others a little for your own benefit, you get rid of the fast consumption virus.

You already know that quick pleasure is also quickly lost and lubricated by constant pressure from above, which is the more, the more debt with interest you have. Having received a thing without effort, you will not always value it as dear, especially when it brings you a lot of pain and suffering as a result of a long exhausting overpayment. I am convinced that what you want must be earned by saving money in advance and understanding later that the purchased item really got you deservedly.

But there is another bonus of a meaningful shopping experience. When emotions are very strong, the thing seems to you much more important than it actually is, desire turns into inadequate passion, and competent marketers will do everything to make it happen.

When a quick loan is taken, you have no natural opportunity to calm down, cool down, think, make an informed decision. When you start to accumulate, such a time appears: you can better study the available offers, more adequately assess your own life circumstances, or even refuse to buy at all if it turns out that you arrived in a state of obsession.

As you can see, rejection of fast consumption on credit in favor of deliberate savings ultimately brings more joy both directly and in its consequences, and at the same time increases your discipline, as it forces you to rise from the level of the three-year "WANT NOW" to the level of an adult …

Remember I said above that society should be cohesive? One of the options for achieving this is cooperation, that is, the achievement of some goals by interested people together, helping each other and supporting.

If you cannot save money for the desired product on your own, join forces with other people, explore the possibility of interest-free loans, for example, at work or in organizations that provide such services. All problems can be solved if you start solving them with the use of the head.

Close-knit people can subsequently solve many of their other problems together; and just having good and reliable friends is always great.

Now I appeal to those who have already realized these truths and are trying to act deliberately, observing not only their own, but also public financial security.

Do not look down on those who have not yet matured to this understanding, better help them, please understand what their mistake is, explain that giving up thoughtless consumption contrary to their expectations will bring more joy from life, despite the fact that the desired junk will become smaller. It's just that the quality of possession will become completely different, and the conscience before society will be clearer. Don't judge people for not knowing; educate them politely.