Canadian Personal Finance Blog

This is sort of an off shoot of a discussion I read in my paper about whether Obesity is a Moral issue.

Is debt a moral issue?

Let’s go over a few points here:

• I am not saying anyone who is in debt is of questionable morality (since that would include me), or imply a “sinful living” of some kind.
• Remember Greed is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and thus trying to gain wealth and reduce debt might actually be viewed as immoral in some ways (if you want to think of the converse of this question, which would be, “Is Debt Reduction immoral, as it is a type of Greed”).
• Let’s stick with Morality as your “code of conduct” as it were.

If the way you live is what is getting you into debt (and most of the time, that is the cause of debt), then I think yes, Debt is a Moral issue. If you cannot control your spending that is a Moral issue for you and you need to change that pattern in your life (I won’t use the trite term Lifestyle Change for this).

If you don’t view your debt as being a problem, yet it is affecting how you live then most definitely debt is a Moral Issue, and it must be dealt with in that way, as well.

In some ways debt build up can be a sign of Greed, in that you don’t worry about whether you can pay for something, you simply want it, and that is a moral issue as well (depending on what you are going into debt for). If you are building up debt to better yourself (i.e. education) then that is not a moral issue, but if you must buy a new car every year, simply to keep up appearances, that is a moral issue.

Opinions from my good readers would be appreciated for this Sunday, as well.