Being in debt means using up the future in the present. Essentially, it’s about how we manage our time. Therefore, the most valuable resource for debtors is time, and it depends on which side time favors. Paying off debt is like repaying borrowed future time early. When the ability to generate wealth over time decreases, the future time becomes a burden, and the debtor faces the pain of bankruptcy. Taking on debt is costly. It may seem like borrowed money is repaid with money, but the irreplaceable resource of time is also returned along with interest. With the rise of postpaid credit cards as a common payment method, we’ve become less sensitive to the associated pain and cost. There are two ways to spend money: using present time or future time. The costs and pain are much higher when the future is spent as if it were the present. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Information asymmetry happens when buyers and sellers have different levels of information, leading to adverse selection in the market. Adverse selection occurs when one party, either the buyer or the seller, has hidden information about the product and makes buying or selling decisions based on that information. For example, in the used car market , buyers cannot know everything about the cars and cannot fully trust them. Because of this, they often try to buy used cars at lower prices to evaluate their quality. To make buyers feel more confident, sellers might promise to repair the car free of charge if it breaks within a year after purchase, protecting themselves against adverse selection. A successful transaction depends on strategies that align with the market’s specific characteristics. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”