Series on Materialism III: Debt

Part I: Clutter
Part II: Want

If clutter is the symptom, and want is the illness, then debt is the mechanism by which the illness operates.

Disclosure of bias: I hate interest, and debt, and the idea of debt, more than most things. The idea that I might owe someone something, and not be able to pay it off before I die, and so have creditors bug my family after my passing really, really irks me. One of the few prayers that I direct for myself is a wish that I'm not taken before I have a chance to pay off all possible debts in this life.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. Western economies are based on consumerism, yes, and hand in hand with such is the consumer debt industry. If, perchance, you desire Object X, thanks to a helpful advert (obviously), but cannot purchase it now with the funds you have, you can always put it on a credit card, or a store card, or go into your bank overdraft, or take out a small consumer loan, at varying rates of interest. All of which, if you think about it, are gambles on the future. You are gambling, right now, that you will be able to, in the future, pay said loan off. Whatever happened to saving up? Or only buying what you could afford? Looks like such ideas have become archaic now.

Credit has become too easy to get, and the lure of being able to have a "new thing" now and pay for it later seems almost irresistible. And the weird thing is that people regard the rates of interest acceptable as a trade-off between paying slightly more (or a lot more) over the long term or ending the debt there and then, or as soon as possible. And they wouldn't be alone. Consumer debt levels in the UK are ridiculous, and whilst the crisis of 2008 and subsequent recession caused a re-examination of attitudes and perhaps a teensy bit of soul-searching for the nation, all of that seems to have gone now.

Is it not the responsibility of lenders to make sure they aren't offering too much credit? Meh. Corporate responsibility is subservient to the demands of shareholders. The credit crisis of 2008 came about because of too much lending, and then for a while, credit became hard to get, but now consumers can get credit easily again. And again, it's not hard to see why. If consumers don't get credit, then once their incomes are spent, they can't buy any more. And an economy based on consumerism needs people to spend, and for growth, needs people to spend more now than they did this time last year. Credit is the easy way to do that, and a secondary stream of income for some through the interest earned. From their point of view, you'd be mad NOT to be offering it.

And for the consumers? A vicious cycle, where clutter, debt, and want all mesh in the worst of ways - something like this:

Dissatisfaction -> Want -> New Purchase -> Temporary Enjoyment -> Clutter + (Potential) Debt -> Dissatisfaction.

Repeat as necessary.

Again, as with clutter and want, I'm not blameless, and am quite angry for falling into this one. I have a list of loans, a store card, a credit card, and an overdraft. None of which are healthy, and none of which I wish I had signed up for. But, as before, what's done is done, and it's easy to see the way out for this one.

- Order your debts in terms of either (i) size or (ii) rate of interest.
- Pick the smallest, or highest interest one, and pay it off, whilst meeting the minimum payments for the rest.
- Repeat, repeat, repeat until debt free. Use money from cleared debts to pay off more and more of the other debts.

Personally, I'm tackling the smallest first, because then it will feel like I've achieved something when I clear it, which increases motivation for tackling the next, bigger, tougher one, and so on and so forth.

Again, as with want, not all debts are bad. If you see the pattern in the series, everything is kinda linked. So what I don't like most of all are debts which are fuelled by want, and lead to clutter. I accept that in the society that we live in, some things are unattainable for most without going into debt, or taking out a loan. Tuition fees for universities, mortgages for houses, and (maybe) a car. Few people are blessed enough to be able to afford any or all straight off without having to go into some form of debt. So they're not so bad - though even then I'd want to pay them off asap. It may well be a worthwhile loan/debt, but I don't want anyone else to suffer for me not having paid it off in my lifetime.

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Thanks for reading this series. One part left, but its writing will be a while longer - I'm going to need to make sure my ideas are crystal clear before I put them online.

Part IV: Money
Part V: Addendum