Debit, Credit
I see on the back table there’s a lealet from CAFOD for the Drop The Debt campaign. The cover’s a picture of an African woman holding a ploughshare, with the caption, “Regina owes us £437. Should we take it?”
It’s a funny thing, debt. The United States is currently clocking over 7.6 trillion dollars of debt. According to the public figures at least; the truth is probably larger. You could just as easily have a picture of an American woman with the caption, “Crystal owes the world $25,000. Should we take it?”
It’s like they say: if you lend me £100 and I don’t repay it, I’m in trouble. If you lend me £100,000,000,000 and I don’t repay it, you’re in trouble.
I think that all the NGOs involved in the campaign for debt relief are well aware of the complexities of global economics. Poverty cannot be eliminated unless there are people making and borrowing money and creating wealth.
If you are to equate poverty to the national debt owed by their respective governments, to all intents and purposes Crystal and Regina are both poor but the differential in what they owe has to be judged against their standard of living which, even if you are poor in America, is going to be much higher than a poor person in Zambia.
I accept the argument that if the American economy gets into trouble so does the rest of the world. Both Crystal and Regina will suffer but the differential between the two remains. The poverty is relative.
There difference to remember is this: Regina owes £437 and lives on less than a dollar a day. Crystal owes $25,000 but lives on a lot more than a dollar a day.
All true Brian. I'm not trying to put the Drop The Debt campaign down at all, I'm just making the point that there's connection between the fact that Crystal lives on a lot more than a dollar a day and the fact that she owes $25,000.
They say credit is like cocaine: They're both highly addictive and they both come in lines. One can only mortgage the future for so long; eventually there's no more future left to mortage.
If the house of cards comes crashing down in the US, Regina may well be glad she's got a farming implement instead of a credit instrument...
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