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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'd be curious to hear how you get blood from a stone.

Contracts have always been predicated on a lie, or fear. If you don't do what the lender demands, oh my -- it'll sue you and take your stuff.

Okay. But what if we get a financial crisis that turns a lot of people into delinquent debtors? What if those people learn how to avoid paying those debts? What if they see banks bailed out while they are not and they develop a view that the system is unfair, and so it is morally okay to welch on debts?

Now what if twelve years after that crisis, a disaster causes these same people to find themselves delinquent debtors once more? What if they recall from the prior financial crisis, "Hey, I don't really have to pay this debt... The people holding the other side of the contract don't have a hell of a lot of power." What if they read stories on the internet about how half the country, rich and poor, landlord and tenant, are unable to pay debts and therefore not doing so? What if they see politicians on TV telling them they should receive all sorts of debt forgiveness? Suppose the idea takes hold, "Hmmm... If everyone stops paying, the whole system grinds to a halt and nobody can collect from anybody"?

Because that idea is gestating right now. People are learning that contracts are just pieces of paper. That you can test the enforcement capacity of the person on the other side of the deal, particularly in times like these.

I think Icky joked this thinking was #TeamNotPaying, or something like that. Well, I'm suggesting to you, and anyone else involved in lending, that if this lockdown persists for too long, you're "holding that bag" whether you like it or not.

No doubt that delinquency is going to go up, but if it were really true that people are going to think contracts are just pieces of paper, you wouldn't be talking about the need for debt relief.