A Good Person

There’s no clause in a credit card contract that speaks to your morality. Nor, for that matter, the morality of the lending institution.
The reason? This is a commercial contract – one party borrows money, the other lends it based on the agreement that the lender will reap a financial benefit in the form of interest.
Aside from the agreement to pay interest, there are no strings attached. Use the money to buy a new bed, a bottle of booze, or an outfit to wear on a date that may end up in the bed after consuming the bottle of booze.
It doesn’t matter if the lender’s leadership has an opposition to any of your activities. So long as you pay back the money, you’ve held up your end of the bargain.
The problem arises when the obligation to repay the debt is unmet.
Isn’t there an obligation to repay debts?
Yes, there is. When you make a promise, you’re expected to keep that promise.
And yet.
If there’s morality in the transaction, it must go both ways.
A good person wouldn’t lend you $1,000 and then demand payment if doing so would render you homeless. They’d change the payment amount, extend the term, or reduce the interest to account for your change in circumstances.
A good person wouldn’t give you $500 to tide you over until next payday and require $550 as payment in full just a few days later. That’s called loansharking, and it’s illegal – and immoral.
And yet.
The credit card companies create agreements that deliberately eliminate morality in favor of profit. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, though; it’s capitalism, and it’s how the system was set up.
In an effort to balance the scales a bit, the law provides for a way for you to renegotiate your side of the contract.
That’s bankruptcy, and it’s how the law brings fairness if not morality back into an otherwise unfair system.
It’s not always easy, and it’s not always quick. Sometimes you lose a little money, a little property, or a great credit score for a few months.
All of those costs can be turned around in time through some hard work and patience.
But make no mistake – the process of taking out a loan isn’t moral or ethical. It’s a construct of our society, a one-sided transaction designed to provide stability and profit to lenders.
Failing to live up to your side of that Faustian bargain isn’t a moral failing. It doesn’t make you a bad person, and it doesn’t mean you’re somehow unethical.
If you need to file for bankruptcy, you’re giving up something in exchange for balancing the scales in a small way. It’s not penance, at least not in a spiritual way.
Rather, the law extracts from you that which is fair. If you accept the costs as they apply in your individual situation, you’ve taken the moral high road.
And anyone who disagrees with your decision hasn’t walked the proverbial mile in your shoes.