Businessweek magazine recently published "The 85 most disruptive ideas of the past 85 years" (the magazine is 85 years old). Not all of them are necessarily related to business. But number 19 is
Credit. Once upon a time their was a thing called debt. We have all been brought up to know that debt is a bad thing. You don't want to go into debt anymore than is absolutely necessary. Having a home mortgage probably would be considered OK since it provides you with your living space and you gradually build equity when you pay down the mortgage. Debt perhaps was viewed as a form of servitude.
Then debt turned into something else: Something called credit. Economist will tell you that debt is credit somewhere else. Psychologically, debt is a negative but credit is an opportunity. Debt is linked with owing and credit is viewed as belief, or faith that one can handle credit more easily than debt. Wow what a marketing plan!!! So at the peak of the debt crisis we had a credit bubble. People were being deluged with offers of credit. I knew of people that were refinancing their house so they could go to Disney World! Hindsight is 20:20, but what a wonderful world with credit???
According to Businessweek, "The figure for total world-wide debt varies, but a credible estimate from 2013 puts debt at 313 percent of global gross domestic product. Humanity has a mortgage more than three times the size of its income."
Anyone up for a trip to Disney World?
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