The financial-services industry promotes a peculiar twisting of the English language when it comes to marketing those little plastic rectangles. What the industry promotes as a “credit card” is in reality nothing of the sort: From the standpoint of the consumer, it’s a debt card. The envelope in the mailbox says, “Congratulations, you’ve been pre-approved for a line of credit of $10,000!” But what it ought to say is, “Be careful! You’ve just been given permission to go $10,000 in debt.”

What the industry calls “debit cards,” on the other hand, reflect a cash balance the holder has previously deposited in the bank. It is the holder of a debit card — not a credit card — who truly has credit.

This is a kind of Newspeak, as insidious as anything George Orwell could imagine in his novel 1984 — and we accept it without a whimper.

++++++++++++++++++++

Build like a lord, live like a servant. Build like a servant, live like a lord.

— Ancient Sumerian proverb.

+++++++++++++++++++

A man’s indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.

—Ruth Benedict.

++++++++++++++++++

“All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him (David).”
1 Samuel 22:1-3 (in Context)