There was once a time when a shake of the hands was good enough for a contract to be formed that people felt obligated to honor. In some instances, it was a valid contract. In others, it wasn’t. But either way, one’s word was one’s bond, and honoring one’s word was what one did. The point isn’t that people never found themselves unable to keep their word, but that when they didn’t, they felt shame for their failure to do so.
Is this still the case? Will this be how people feel going forward? Or is shame for failure to honor one’s obligation the latest “stigma” to fall out of favor?
Immediately after the initiative was announced, opponents of debt cancellation began denouncing “slacker baristas,” overeducated Ivy League lawyers and impractical “lesbian dance theory” majors. Immune to accusations of hypocrisy, Republican members of Congress who had received hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars in federal relief castigated student debtors who might receive $10,000 to $20,000 in aid.
Yes, the use of “federal relief” is a shifty and dishonest false equivalence, even if those targeted made a career out of being shifty and dishonest in their own right.
It was a stark reminder that shame, like wealth, is not evenly distributed in our society. For working-class people, insolvency is often seen as a sign of profligacy and personal irresponsibility, while large corporations and the wealthy routinely walk away from their obligations and are celebrated as savvy for doing so. Donald Trump can boastfully call himself the “king of debt” for his string of strategic bankruptcies; the average debtor would never dare.
Trump managed to fail running a casino. No one celebrated him as savvy for doing so. Even so, bankruptcy and reorganization serve purposes, mostly about seeing that people who are owed money get paid, But I digest.
The ability to rely on people to keep their promises presents a critical foundation for a nation to function. It’s not that people don’t fail to do so, and that courts don’t exist to determine contract rights, but that most of us go through life never having to sue anyone and never being sued because we do what we agree to do. On the positive side, we do so because it’s the honorable way to live one’s life. On the negative side, we do so because we would feel ashamed to be a deadbeat.
Of course, there is a component to doing so worthy of mention here, that many of us don’t “buy” things we can’t afford, don’t take on debts that we can’t repay. There is a practical reason for this, knowing that it will eventually result in financial disaster, and an emotional reason, that we can’t sleep at night knowing that we’re dishonorable people.
The mass cancellation of federal student loans will not only remove a crushing economic weight for tens of millions of people, it will lift a significant emotional one, too. This psychological shift could, in turn, have further political implications, by emboldening those who find their obligations overwhelming to engage in collective action aimed at winning more relief and changing the policies that make indebtedness so pervasive.
This sounds cool, but makes no sense. It’s the unfortunate trend of stringing words together that defy reason.
Why is our society so invested in steeping debtors in shame? The answer lies in debt’s role as a core building block of our economy and unequal social order. Debt is wrapped around every necessity of life: We use credit to make daily purchases and pay for medical care, take out mortgages, finance our cars, and borrow for college; cities and states issue debt to pay for roads and schools. Monthly repayments are often a form of wealth transfer to the affluent investors who hold these debts as assets, fueling inequality.
Without shame, why keep any promise? Why repay any debt? Is shame what keeps honorable people from lying and cheating, even if they can get away with it? When engaging in distortion for the benefit of the perpetually victimized by comparing individual debt with municipal bonds, will anyone be better off if there were no shame in being dishonorable? Should shame be stigmatized or join the growing ranks of bad stuff people do that now makes a million people on twitter send them thoughts and prayers for being so brave?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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