I’d like to object to credit being described as unlimited money. Credit doesn’t exactly always the amount of money you have. The main thing it does is it lets you send money back in time.
For productive capital, this might be close enough to unlimited money. If you have an investment with a 10x expected value and can prove it sufficiently to banks or investors, you can borrow as much money as you need to do it and by the time you need to send 1/10th of it back in time to close the loop you’ll still have more money available than you would have in the timeline where credit wasn’t invented. Examples of this are situations like “borrow money → buy tractor → grow a bigger/better crop → sell bigger crop → pay back money used to buy tractor”.
That doesn’t apply to consumer credit though. If you bring $1000 from the future back in time to buy a couch, you haven’t actually increased the amount of money available to all versions of you, you’ve just transferred it from future-you to present-you (and in-practice, reduced the amount of money available since a few hundred dollars are guaranteed to fall out of your time machine on the way).
To be clear, unlimited capital is a huge deal, but you specifically mention consumer credit and give several examples of consumer goods. I think the two categories should be treated very differently.
I’d like to object to credit being described as unlimited money. Credit doesn’t exactly always the amount of money you have. The main thing it does is it lets you send money back in time.
For productive capital, this might be close enough to unlimited money. If you have an investment with a 10x expected value and can prove it sufficiently to banks or investors, you can borrow as much money as you need to do it and by the time you need to send 1/10th of it back in time to close the loop you’ll still have more money available than you would have in the timeline where credit wasn’t invented. Examples of this are situations like “borrow money → buy tractor → grow a bigger/better crop → sell bigger crop → pay back money used to buy tractor”.
That doesn’t apply to consumer credit though. If you bring $1000 from the future back in time to buy a couch, you haven’t actually increased the amount of money available to all versions of you, you’ve just transferred it from future-you to present-you (and in-practice, reduced the amount of money available since a few hundred dollars are guaranteed to fall out of your time machine on the way).
To be clear, unlimited capital is a huge deal, but you specifically mention consumer credit and give several examples of consumer goods. I think the two categories should be treated very differently.
Hi @Korin43. While I understand your point, I was using it as an analogy. You’re totally right as my description was not 100% accurate.
Consumer credit is totally different. I agree with you. Thanks for explaining the your point and the difference.