The Big Payback

I was recently in a couple of internet conversations which revolved around the seriousness of the "debt crisis".  I felt moved to point out that I don't actually have any particular problem with debt as a concept, whether on a state or on a personal level.  I don't view it as a moral issue at all, and if the current "crisis" (I use the quotation marks for reasons I shall explain below) results in widespread defaults, well then, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

I grew up in debt.  As far as I know I have never lived in my own home:  my parents always bought, but I don't think they ever paid off a mortgage completely (maybe on one house, but I'm pretty sure they took out a second mortgage on that one).  I have, since moving out, always rented.  Both my parents and I have enjoyed the pleasures of credit cards and I'm deeply in the hole on student loans.  I'm pleased to have had the wonderful experiences these debts afforded me although I resent that some of these experiences cost money at all.  My life would have been very different indeed had I not gone into debt, although perhaps not so different had I grown up in a society which didn't require money for the things I've enjoyed. 

[Aside:  I was once at a salvage store which had a huge load of books for sale.  I decided to buy more than a few dollars worth.  My friend was resisting, as she had no cash.  I noted that I, too, lacked cash, and would be "Discovering" the books.  She said she only used her credit card for emergencies.  I said that, come social breakdown, she would have a shiny, like-new credit card and warm feelings from her bankers.  I would have lots of books.]

I'm in Germany now, and folks 'round here don't rightly cotton to my kinda thinkin'.  Or rather, folks of a certain generation don't.  Germany is becoming a debtor society, too, albeit slowly and carefully.  Debt has gotten a bad name over the last two or three years because many cities played financial games with their own debts (thanks Wall Street wizards!) and lost and because the tabloids enjoy telling everyone that "we" will be picking up the slack for "the Greeks".  The reality is, of course, far more complicated.

I realize that things are becoming unpleasant in Greece and may remain so for some time, and I realize that the pain will likely be distributed amongst workers throughout Europe if the powerful don't get their way (or even if they do), but a part of me is pulling for a default.  Fuck it.  Refuse to pay, Greece!  If bankers lose their jobs, so be it.  They shouldn't have such shitty jobs.

And the ramble ends:  I just so happened to have noticed that there's a book called Debt by a person named David Graeber.  I'm going to put that on my list of things to read.  The blog Crooked Timber is in the middle of doing a seminar on it (this is the link to the first post in the series).