5 ms·

I wish more people remembered this - breach of contract is business, not moral decision.

MattHeard 12y ago
Many consider breaking promises to be wrong and contracts to be promises, and so consider breaching contracts to be immoral. Many others also consider the long-term negative consequences of breaching contracts to be worse than short-term positive consequences. If they consider short-term thinking at the cost of the long-term to be immoral, they would consider breaching contracts to be immoral. To you, breaching a contract might just be another IF-THEN which is implicitly or explicitly coded into the contract, but others consider it to have moral weight.
honksillet 12y ago
I agree. Back when the financial crash happened and people were walking away from their mortgages, there was a lot of bloviating about those people's moral duty to pay their mortgages. There is no moral component to it at all. Only a financial one.
appleflaxen 12y ago
If morality is determined by "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", then I think this probably is immoral. It's fairly low on the range of immoral behavior, but it shouldn't be a purely economic calculation, in my opinion.
- icebraining 12y ago
  The creditor failed that by not offering the credit at zero interest, as they would have liked to have done unto them. Why should the golden rule only be applied one way?
  - appleflaxen 12y ago
    I don't understand your line of reasoning.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      You are a lender of money. Someone asks you for money. What's the interest rate you should charge if you apply the golden rule? Zero, because that's what you would want to be charged. Therefore, the creditors in this case broke themselves the golden rule, and shouldn't complain that the debtors did also.
      - ptaipale 12y ago
        Why would I want the lender to charge me zero interest? I know that she can't do that, particularly if I know I'm a risky borrower. I want a rate that is reasonable to the risk, because if I insist on a lower rate, I won't be able to borrow at all.
      - appleflaxen 12y ago
        I think you are knocking down a straw man argument; namely that "the golden rule means 'give away everything you own'". I don't think anybody who would use the golden rule as a moral tool would really interpret it that way.
        icebraining 12y ago
        Not give away; I still wrote "lend".

Many consider breaking promises to be wrong and contracts to be promises, and so consider breaching contracts to be immoral. Many others also consider the long-term negative consequences of breaching contracts to be worse than short-term positive consequences. If they consider short-term thinking at the cost of the long-term to be immoral, they would consider breaching contracts to be immoral. To you, breaching a contract might just be another IF-THEN which is implicitly or explicitly coded into the contract, but others consider it to have moral weight.

honksillet 12y ago

I agree. Back when the financial crash happened and people were walking away from their mortgages, there was a lot of bloviating about those people's moral duty to pay their mortgages. There is no moral component to it at all. Only a financial one.

appleflaxen 12y ago

If morality is determined by "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", then I think this probably is immoral. It's fairly low on the range of immoral behavior, but it shouldn't be a purely economic calculation, in my opinion.

icebraining 12y ago
The creditor failed that by not offering the credit at zero interest, as they would have liked to have done unto them. Why should the golden rule only be applied one way?
- appleflaxen 12y ago
  I don't understand your line of reasoning.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    You are a lender of money. Someone asks you for money. What's the interest rate you should charge if you apply the golden rule? Zero, because that's what you would want to be charged. Therefore, the creditors in this case broke themselves the golden rule, and shouldn't complain that the debtors did also.
    - ptaipale 12y ago
      Why would I want the lender to charge me zero interest? I know that she can't do that, particularly if I know I'm a risky borrower. I want a rate that is reasonable to the risk, because if I insist on a lower rate, I won't be able to borrow at all.
    - appleflaxen 12y ago
      I think you are knocking down a straw man argument; namely that "the golden rule means 'give away everything you own'". I don't think anybody who would use the golden rule as a moral tool would really interpret it that way.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        Not give away; I still wrote "lend".