Prompt 50: June 1, 2025
The Prompt:
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Matthew 13:12
Our culture is built on an ingenious financial system that incentivizes innovation and entrepreneurial risk-taking1. This same financial system profits off exploitation and the ruin of fools. This prompt is intended to evoke dialogue about the dichotomy of debt; the perils or splendors that come from moneylending. As with other controversial prompts, this one should not be viewed as a moral argument about whether a person should or shouldn’t engage in credit, stock markets, or money-lending. The issue here is simply the acknowledgement that money is a tool that separates people into the haves and the have-nots; both can be summed up with the same word: bound.
- Bound (adj): tied; in bonds: (a bound prisoner)
- Bound (adj): determined or resolved: (He is bound to go.)
Questions:
- Why does our generation favor the aspirational vision of debt?
- What debts do you personally consider worth-while?
- What is the difference between personal, corporate, and national debts?
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all
Notes:
- In 1602, the Dutch East India Company opened the first ever public stock-option for any dutchman (or dutch-woman) to buy into the merchant ship enterprise headed for Asia. The investment relied on a good-will relationship between everyone involved to fund the expedition and to pay back a just sum as the dividend to the investment. This is not the invention of lending, but it is the start of a corporate lending system for market expansion.