Just a thought.....what would happen

[LeTiss]

if every single person stopped borrowing money, and we all went back to the days of only buying what we had saved for?

[gutuami]

very hard to say really. It's like explaining to a fish that the water is wet. I think the problem is not in borrowing by itself. This is part of a system we live in. This feature is overused and as a result we're getting more negative results than positive.

[BackHighLayLow]

if every single person stopped borrowing money, and we all went back to the days of only buying what we had saved for?

Probably global economic collapse.

[Euler]

if every single person stopped borrowing money, and we all went back to the days of only buying what we had saved for?

I've done that for years and people just called me old fashioned. I have a good friend in China and he reckons the core culture is built on that mindset. But I'd imagine the up and coming middle classes will change that.

[superfrank]

Probably global economic collapse.

+1

they'd pass laws against living within your means. the system only survives by ever-increasing credit (debt).

banks can now borrow at rates less than inflation - money isn't supposed to be free - which shows just how desperate they are to increase credit.

[giulio2010]

In Italy there is a strong culture of non-debt. I know just few people who have debts, 20 years ago I knew not a single person who have bought a house with a mortgage. Here, people of my generation and even more of the previous generation have the habit of buying only with the money we already have. If it was not for the government who wasted all tx to the high corruption the system worked perfectly. We are now paying a debt that we have not asked for and because of this we are also losing our heritage to the tax burden that we face today..We were not the richest country in the world but I remember my grandparents, my parents and all my relatives sleeping well and not thinking how to pay back the banks, the state and the bills...

[gazuty]

That world already exits. It's called Islam.

There are any number of thesis that the Islamic economies very slow economic progress is due to the inability to simply lend money for interest.

And for balance some counter argument to what I have put http://tribune.com.pk/story/411909/are- ... ic-growth/

And also http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011 ... ct_cassidy

[Photon]

Post by gazuty » Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:23 am
That world already exits. It's called Islam.

There are any number of thesis that the Islamic economies very slow economic progress is due to the inability to simply lend money for interest.

And for balance some counter argument to what I have put http://tribune.com.pk/story/411909/are- ... ic-growth/

I, or anybody with the right state of mind, don’t think for a minute that the growth in Islamic world has been slower due to aversion to debt!

It’s really because of aversion to knowledge, progress, scientific enquiry, pluralistic outlook, to compromise, to get along, communal voilence, hatred of mankind, to avoid do or die attitude, etc. I can go on.

Look at Mali with burning of important and rare menu script, Afghanistan of Buddha statue etc. It reminds me of The Planet of Apes where the evolution reverses.

The banning of music, reading, arts, free expression, expression of alternative view, I could go on believe me.