I'm not triggered. Sorry, that's just my (bad) habit of employing ridicule and irony in discussions. I didn't try to imply that it's my obligation to lend. I'm very risk averse in fact. I'm also not 100% evil, but I'm not very charitable (yet). I donated several times and that's it.

> Sure there can be positive social results to certain kinds of lending. If you’re investing for that purpose though (to improve someone’s situation), why are you looking to be punitive and enforce that you get a return?

Certainly there are people and organization that invest with aim to help the other party. But aren't most people investing to make profit? And isn't this kind of investing (for profit) beneficial for society as well? You provide capital early to others, and since you can't use it now for your consumption you get interest in return.

I don't think why you imply that I want to hold power over people. All I'm saying is that if I don't get any protection, then likely I won't invest at all. And who would if there's no protection?

> Is it a moral failing on their part or mine that that happened? Sometimes they don’t fail. Is that due to our morals?

If a company defaults on obligations then by the law it's going to be liquidated, and both bond holders and stock owners will be paid from that. That's the risk I'm willing to bear. But if the company would have the choice to renege on its obligations and keep on existing, would you invest? Would anybody?

> But if the company would have the choice to renege on its obligations and keep on existing, would you invest? Would anybody?

Yes. Chapter 11 bankruptcy

OK. I'm not US citizen, but I'll check that out. Anyway, I see your point and I'll have to think about it more. Maybe I'll even give the book a 2nd try. :-)

Most large economies have some kinds of bankruptcy protection which is a suite of laws that cover various things from restructuring to debt relief. Chapter 11 is just a very well known law because American bankruptcy law showed the way forward for modern bankruptcy (fun fact in Ancient Greece failure to pay your debtor put you and your family into slavery and in the Middle Ages you’d be thrown into debtors prison). From a purely economic perspective it should be obvious why debtor’s person is a terrible idea - the person is taken out of any possibility for economic activity, which hurts economy and society. Slavery is similarly a problem because the debtor now is directing economic activity of another individual which introduces skew into what would actually be an efficient use of that person’s skills.

I’m not saying the book is good or bad as I haven’t read it. I’ve just read up on the history of bankruptcy and why it was introduced, how it helped form the modern economy, and why morally and ethically it’s problematic. Additional research into modern times of the problems with payday loans and their ilk. Money is a tool but it’s also used as a kudgle by the wealthy and powerful when deployed at scale. often has to be because otherwise the overhead of managing the wealth becomes too great (but that’s an externality they push onto society).