Debt is a powerful tool when used by educated people for legit reasons, buying a new TV or chicken wings isn't one of them.
Debt is a dangerous tool when used carefully and intelligently. When used carelessly or unintelligently it is a ruinous monster. We live in a world that allegedly is more educated than ever, but I don't think education is sufficient to avoid this pitfall.
Which is to say: not at fucking all.
But, ultimately, you can only spend as much as you make in income, or go bankrupt. Choosing to tack on an interest payment to your costs is often an unnecessary additional cost for people. That’s true if you’re poor buying a rudimentary TV or rich maxing out credit cards to furnish your mansion.
That stopped being true a long time ago, at least in the US. TVs can be had incredibly cheaply nowadays. A quick Amazon search shows many models available for circa $100. That's like less than a dozen fast food meals.
If you need a TV, save your money and buy one you can afford. A predatory payment plan should not be used.
Which is not to have a go at the US, but to just make the point that buying domestic appliances is not a simple "bad credit" case. Unlike chicken wings.
Obviously there is also the opposite dark and pessimistic take here, but there are potentially good things as well?
Someone who can't probably shouldn't be spending $800 on wings.
klarna offers a 4 equal interest free payments option. How that any different from a credit card?
My example with the wings is an extreme/incidental use-case, and I realize that it'd be atypical to unheard of in practice.
This is an extreme/incidental example, and very likely isn't how this feature is going to be used in practice: I realize that.
>The sort of person who would order wings as their backup catering for a wedding doesn't shouldn't be borrowing for this, one would think.
We're splitting hairs over personal opinions on personal finance here.
Ok. This is for someone who is thinking that they need another $500-800 for the backup catering. For them, an extra $800 with no warning is an expense they can't just eat with the change in their pocket either, one presumes. But they're budgeting for a wedding that likely costs upwards of $7500 (all other costs considered), and they're spending that much without being able to set aside another $1000 for last minute incidentals? I think that this cost might just be the sort of bad decision making that we're all talking about rather than a legitimate use case. And that's even allowing for the recovery of the funds from the original caterer.
Debt affects everyone, not just the borrower and the lender. When lenders make one bad loan, society can bear that burden and especially so if many of the loans are good loans that serve mutual interest. When most of the loans are bad, taxpayers pay to enforce loan terms (not the lender), then they pay again when the economy melts down (the lender just reincorporates under some other business name). So it is a big deal when someone is proposing an entirely new class of lending, and it does warrant this level of discussion. If anything, it warrants a much more intense level of discussion than what we've seen so far or what we are likely to see.
Your inability to grasp this is disturbing and should come across as some sort of profound warning to everyone.
> Your inability to grasp this is disturbing and should come across as some sort of profound warning to everyone.
Way out of line, dude. Now you're insulting my ability to understand things? You think I don't know about all that? Obviously there are plenty of people who don't deserve credit, but there are also plenty who do. I take pride in having an exceptional credit score.
I'd get those wings. And I'd have a 'profound' time sharing them with friends and family making memories.