Equity for Europeans

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21 pointsTomte4 comments

Good points.

I think that liability may be the better analog for Schuld as it also has the liable<=>schuldig form and carries more of the connotation of guilt.

Liability is Pflicht (duty) or Haftpflicht (legal liability).

Schuld is debt or guilt. I understand it as the outcome of liability, not as liability itself.

Ah you're right, thanks.

Another aspect which was too long for me to type on my phone earlier is that debt/Schuld is backward looking while liability/Pflicht is forward looking.

So while debt is incurred through past actions, what matters from an operational business perspective is your liability, i.e. your obligation for future payments/value transfers.

In english speaking business practice, debt and liability seemt to be used interchangeably. I have never used German in a professional setting and am only familiar with the colloquial usage of Schuld and Pflicht so I would be interested to hear how those differences play out in German business use.

In plural form "Schulden" is exclusively used for debt. The more common term for liability is "Haftung" which also translates to accountability (GmbH for an LLC means Gesellschaft mit beschraenkter Haftung). The singular "Schuld" can also mean guilt, blame or fault. But they are all pretty negative in their connotation.

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