credit:
1. A contractual agreement in which a borrower receives something of value now and agrees to repay the lender at some later date. When a consumer purchases something using a credit card, they are buying on credit (receiving the item at that time, and paying back the credit card company month by month). Any time when an individual finances something with a loan (such as an automobile or a house), they are using credit in that situation as well. Source.
Do you see what, in the definition above, is misleading or inaccurate? This phrase..."purchases something using a credit card..." This is something that is not possible. Yes, I know many people and dictionaries do put various spins on terms, but my definition of a completed purchase is "when someone has received something of value AND has completed all agreements to pay or reimburse" for that thing. A purchase is at least a two-step transaction; an exchange of "money or its equivalent" for "something of value" If you have taken possession of the "something of value" and have only made a "promise to pay", the transaction is not complete. It cannot be complete until the promise is honored and actual payment is made, or the promise is withdrawn and the "thing" returned, etc.
When a person typically "buys" something with a credit card, only half a transaction has occurred. You have taken possession of the "thing" and made a promise to pay. You have also transferred your debtor from the person, store or company from whom you are acquiring the thing, to the credit card company. The person, store or company has received their agreed upon payment but the transaction is not complete on your end. You have not bought the "thing", you have arranged for someone else to buy it for you in exchange for your promise to pay THEM in the future. If all goes well, you pay the secondary "debtor" AND almost always an added fee for the convenience of having acquired the "thing" you wanted earlier than you probably otherwise could. If all does NOT go well and you are unable to pay your secondary debtor...
Often the "thing" you acquired is completely consumed, thus removing any option to return it and cancel the debt. At this point (or sooner, depending on how you look at it) you have become an indentured servant to the credit card company. You OWE. You are expected to work to pay your debt. If, for whatever reason, you cannot work and pay your debt, then your reputation in the monetary and social systems have been damaged. No one cares WHY you did not pay, least of all the credit card company, only that you did not. This has a very negative effect on your "credit worthiness" and this might be fine except for the fact that our society attaches the moral "worth" of a human being to how much money and/or possessions they have and whether they are able to "pay their bills". Everyone knows that people who "don't pay their bills" are people of "low character" or worth. There is no relevance attached to WHY one has not paid the bills.
This brings us back to why anyone would engage in any credit transactions in the first place. How many reasons are there for this? Perhaps simple greed..."I want this now". Perhaps the person has bought into the social mythology meme that their worth as a person is determined by how much money and/or things they have. They may or may not fully realize the folly of this attempt to get that "acceptance", but it is so important to most that they will continually repeat the credit transactions to at least give the appearance of being wealthier (and thus worth more as a person) - all the while growing poorer - than they actually are. After all, most polls show us that "appearance" is often far more important than actual truth or substance.
Sometimes the "thing" acquired through "credit" is actually of literal and immediate life and death importance. Typically this would be medical care, but in some instances it may even be as simple as food. Many people are so emotionally attached to the concept of a person's worth being indicated by their wealth status ("how much is he worth?" is still a common expression), that they are perfectly willing to allow people to simply die, rather than engaging in what their paranoid fear calls "socialism", i.e., people helping people via government action.
You don't have to pay actual cash money for your purchases, you know. There are things that look almost identical to credit cards, but work very differently. They are called debit cards. With this kind of card, when you make a purchase, it is actually a genuine purchase, a completed transaction. You have "bought" the "thing" and have instantly paid for it. You do not OWE. The net effect is exactly the same as using actual cash. The trouble is, this kind of card also has the same "drawback" as using actual cash. It will not allow one to maintain their illusion that they have more (and are thus worth more) than they actually do. And if you do not have as much as you would like to have or pretend to have, what does this mean? Does it really mean your worth as a human is less than you thought? Maybe that is a lie designed to enslave you. Could it possibly be that you are not given a fair or just payment or compensation for your work in the first place? Perhaps if you were, you would never have any trouble acquiring all the things you really need, whatever they might be? Perhaps you should consider another meaning of the word "credit": "5. Public acknowledgment or praise, typically that given or received when a person's responsibility for an action or idea becomes or is made apparent." Perhaps if everyone got much more of this kind of credit they would feel far less need for the other slavery kind of credit?
TRB
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