Last post was about the psychology of debt, and it ended with some open
questions. Well, this time around some more empirically not-so-well founded
considerations are due.
Starting point: a lot of human activity revolves around social groups.
The animal instincts in us dictate that status is inherently a big thing in
every group. Now, status can be defined in many ways: money, fancy cars, number
of journal citations, points scored in matches, pretty much anything – even
lack of any of the previous qualities. Our instincts are in that sense
malleable that we can adapt to a variety of circumstances.
Now then, with materialism being the dominant “religion” in our
society, it’s no surprise that matter – money, possessions, or anything that correlates
with possessing lots of money – is also perhaps the most dominant determinant
in one’s social status. All this is hardly very controversial.
How can one earn a lot of money, and status, then? Well, inheritance is
one way, but to leave that aside, anything else means working – and succeeding
– at something. Again, it doesn’t really matter what it is, it can be pretty
much anything of the carious human activities. How does one succeed, then? Well, to
paraphrase Titius Maccius Plautus, “you must spend money to earn money”.
And here comes the controversial part: I believe a lot of consumer
credit and debt is about wanting to earn status amongst one’s peers. Why do you
take a mortgage? An economist would probably say that because it’s cheaper than
renting. What really is going on is that you take the mortgage because everybody
else has a fancy house, too.
If this is the case, couldn't it well be that our ever increasing debts have
something to do with this consumerist fighting over status? Debt before dishonor, in a way. And if so, is there
anything we can do about it?