Being in debt means using up the future in the present. Essentially, it’s about how we manage our time. Therefore, the most valuable resource for debtors is time, and it depends on which side time favors. Paying off debt is like repaying borrowed future time early. When the ability to generate wealth over time decreases, the future time becomes a burden, and the debtor faces the pain of bankruptcy. Taking on debt is costly. It may seem like borrowed money is repaid with money, but the irreplaceable resource of time is also returned along with interest. With the rise of postpaid credit cards as a common payment method, we’ve become less sensitive to the associated pain and cost. There are two ways to spend money: using present time or future time. The costs and pain are much higher when the future is spent as if it were the present. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
In 2002, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman conducted an experiment called the “Dictator Game”. It was 1986. One of the two subjects was given $20 to share with the other. The first condition was that the recipient could exercise his veto power if he did not like the distribution ratio, and then, the ruler ensured that the giver did not have the money. The second condition eliminated the veto. In the first condition, most people who gave money were divided in half. In the second condition, however, the giver had about 70% and shared only 30%. Most people think of fairness to vested interests between 50% and 70%. But, in some cases, even though the recipient had a veto, the giver had 90% and wanted to share only 10%. At that time, it was beneficial for the recipient to receive at least 10%, but by exercising the veto power, the giver did not have the money either. This is the moment of conflict between justice and rationality. People do not make decisions based on reason alon...