Hubris IOU
Some people are debt-averse. Others aren't. Why? Well, it's hard to say, but Nassim Nicholas Taleb recently pointed out that over-confident people take on a lot of debt. His words: "Nobody gave a thought to the idea that overconfidence translates 1-1 into accumulation of debt." (Link to podcast.) The podcast's host economist signaled his agreement.
I love nuggets of insight like that. It reverberated with my experience: I don't have much confidence: in myself (hence, I tend to work harder, out of fear if nothing else), in my country (obviously), and (heck, let's be candid) in my God, Who always seems to know more than I do, thereby putting me in a constant state of uncertainty. I lack all that confidence, and I'm more debt-averse than a Jewish grandmother. Acquaintances who don't suffer from my psychosis don't have any problem with debt accumulation.
The whole thing also dovetails with what I think is the primary problem for developed countries today, especially the United States: hubris. Pride goeth before the fall, and now that the developing world holds a lot of our debt, we might see a one-on-one correlation of pride-to-fall.
Aside: Why isn't the average American baffled and freaked-out by the fact that our rich country owes poor countries a ton of money?
