Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.
Interpretation
Credit relies on trust between two parties who both lack the ability to pay, creating a complex financial relationship.
This quote by Charles Dickens critiques the nature of credit systems, illustrating a paradox where individuals unable to pay engage others, also likely unable to pay, to assure financial transactions. It highlights the irony and dysfunction often found in financial systems that rely on credit and guarantees rather than actual liquidity or financial stability.
In practice
In a lecture on economics, one might use this quote to discuss the flaws in modern banking systems.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
Liquidity is a good proxy for relative net worth. You can't lie about cash, stocks, and bond values.
Eliminate emotion from your investment program.
After costs, only the top 3% of managers produce a return that indicates they have sufficient skill to just cover their costs, which means that going forward, and despite extraordinary past returns, even the top performers are expected to be only as good as a low-cost passive index fund. The other 97% can be expected to do worse.
I cannot invest the way I want the world to be; I have to invest the way the world is.
The research indicates that when we women invest, we women do tend to be more patient, take a longer-term perspective and as a result of it, tend to be better investors than men. But the messages we get are that investing is sort of 'the guys' world.'
Assets put money in your pocket, whether you work or not, and liabilities take money from your pocket.
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