Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Slavery was a part of life in ancient Greece. One of the ways to become a slave is to become a debtor and not be able to repay your debts. This is one reason one should not become a borrower. (It is not clear to me that debt bondage was common in ancient Greece.)
When an individual goes into debt bondage he often takes with him is family and descendents. When a ruler or government goes into debt bondage it appears they take their citizens with them.
As a lender not only might you lose all or part of the purchasing power you have transferred to another you could also become a slave master and can a slave master be true to him/her self?
There are a lot of other governments with huge debts the means for repayment of which is not clear. I fear debt bondage is not just a historical phenomenon.
Filed under: General | Tagged: borrower, debt bondage, Greece, lender, slavery | Leave a comment »