The cost of credit?
I have another concern about the power of lifelong earnings and how it relates to credit.
What does credit/debt do to integrity?
OK, I see that if everything goes the same, or improves, then one can leverage earnings into fancier goodies. You can have some of the good things right now that you would’ve gotten farther down the road.
(Altho it still seems like you’d be living now on the extra earnings you would’ve made in the future, so that your future level will come down. It seems like credit allows you to change your quality of goodies into a level situation from the usual curve upwards. Is the idea mainly: who needs a T-bird when they’re 70? But this isn’t my main question today.)
But what kinds of things very commonly cause a career path to change? Either you change or someone else does or the culture does. I’m optimistic about quite a few people. I think it’s almost more likely that a person can ‘hold the course’ on integrity longer than a culture can, or longer than a person who has an axe to grind can, or even someone who has debt.
So that if you’re in some type of a creative, strategic debt situation and your boss asks you to screw a colleague, what can you do? And why did he ask you to screw that colleague anyway? Maybe he’s wicked or greedy…or just in debt himself. Had no choice.
What if your whole field starts to make a turn and decides that integrity means something that sits funny with you, say maybe that “All’s fair in war,” or some such scary notion. How can such a culture be defeated, corrected, turned back? Who could do it? Who could even say a peep?
It seems like only those who have Integrity Capital saved up and well in hand could do it. Those who could afford to walk away. Ideally, they could eventually get another good job that had more value, merit, joy and love. But if the whole culture was turning, they might have to endure being frozen out for awhile. They might get blacklisted in their field.
In fact, it seems like every level of the workforce needs to be able to have this kind of capital. Unions need to be able to be rich enough in ‘culture capital’ to be able to afford strikes. Poor people have to be even more careful that they don’t get in binds where they can’t afford to say no. “I may be poor but at least I have my self respect.”
People have to be able to refuse to do shitty work if they want to stand a chance at having a say in what kind of work will be available.
If they’re in creative, strategic debt, can they?
If people are in debt, The Owners hold the strings. George Orwell says that fear of the sack and a long line at the gate keeps modern western man in line. Does creative, strategic debt relate to this or not?
Even on a spiritual level, if you’re in debt your career holds the strings rather than some hopefully higher part of yourself. Something higher should always call the shots. If one is to honor ones debts and contracts, wouldn’t they tend to trump other concerns?
On the other hand, I’m starting to get a faint idea here: maybe debt is a kind of capital as well. Like, “If you don’t treat me better, I’ll take my debt elsewhere.” Maybe in that way debt can be seen as liberating. But I’m starting to laugh a bit now. Wouldn’t that require a Donald Trump level of debt? And what kind of integrity rules at that level anyway?
Just thinking some more about debt and credit…. Your pal, JP
