You owe this one a listen. In episode 94 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss everything debt, from student loans and bank bailouts to the importance of honoring one’s intellectual forebears. Did Shakespeare’s Antonio really pay Shylock with “a pound of flesh”? Why does Nietzsche say that the Christian God is a creditor of infinite debt? Who really benefits from bailouts under capitalism today? And might it be time to bring back good old “jubilees,” i.e., sanctioned acts of collective debt c...
Hello and welcome to Overthink, the podcast.
Where we owe it to you to apply philosophy to everyday life.
I'm Ellie Anderson.
And I am David Pena Usman.
I heard on the radio recently that Americans credit card debt reached an all time high in 2023.
During the early phases of the pandemic, many people paid down their debts,
but now we're back and more in debt than ever.
And in fact, one of every two Americans who owns a credit card has debt.
Credit card interest rates, what's more, are upward of 20%.
So Americans are spending hefty amounts of money every month in interest.
I am weirdly thankful to my parents who have very much an immigrant mentality about this,
because they inst in me a tremendous fear of going in debt.
So I, I didn't have a credit card, Ellie, until actually just a couple of years ago for the first time.
And I, I've tried to live my life in a way that avoids debt.
The only problem with that is that of course the American financial system sort of requires you to go
into debt to build things like credit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Or to like buy a car unless you can pay upfront for it, et cetera.
And of course, given things like our health care system,
sometimes even with the best intentions to stay out of debt, people are still ending up in debt nonetheless.