Everyday Ethics

As economic woes reach new heights here in the United States, having a good credit rating is increasingly something to be proud of.  The importance of credit is often framed as a practical issue, one that we all reasonably ought to care about.  What I want to talk about here is the connection between appropriate ethical conduct and maintaining good credit.

First, a big part of keeping your credit score high is not carrying too much debt on credit cards, and also not having an excessive number of credit card accounts.  Both of these things require that you live within your own economic means.  This has moral implications in two ways.  First, it encourages an attitude of shared prosperity, whereby you are not focused entirely on satisfying your own wants.  Second, it requires an appreciation of long term well-being, which can have positive affects on yourself and your dependents, as well as promoting positive social changes.  The attitudes and dispositions associated with keeping your credit score high can also contribute positively to your interactions with other people. 

Another important connection between having good credit and being morally good is that when you allow your credit rating to fall or default on credit payments, you are effectively making credit more expensive for other people.  The current housing market situation is a good example of this phenomenon.  Because banks have lost a lot of money on default mortgages, the cost of borrowing money is currently much higher than in the past.  This is effectively a passing of the cost of default mortgages onto current loan seekers.  The same thing can happen with credit cards, and it’s important to realize that when you rack up more debt than you can handle, you are not the only person who faces negative consequences as a result.  Credit woes are a shared burden, and our duty to others requires that we limit the burdens that we place upon them.

Credit is a complicated issue, and it has far-reaching affects that go well beyond the impact upon individuals.  It also creates opportunities for us to foster positive attitudes towards other people, provided we learn to handle credit the right way.  To learn more about credit, check out SpendOnLife.com’s blogging scholarship promotion.  In the meantime, put those cards away!

About the Author

Elijah Weber is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. He holds a Master's degree in philosophy from Colorado State University, and Bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman Univerity. He currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife Laura, his son Brandon, age two and a half, and two cats, both of whom are mentally deranged.