Nature charges interest. Debt payment to mother nature was due in 2020. The decisions we make, and the actions we take have consequences. They impact the world around us. Globalism, as it has played out over the past several decades, has initiated one of those payments. For this post, I am being specific to how physically connected we are. I.e. The international travel, which is propped up by vacationing and tourism, but primarily business.
For anyone who doesn’t know, debt is a liability. It is an obligation to make someone (or something) whole for past transactions or past events. In financial accounting, if you’re business takes out a loan, it is recorded as a liability. An entity receiving the loan (debtor) must pay the initial loan amount (principal), plus interest on that amount, back to the entity granting the loan (creditor). The hope is that whatever the debtor entity did with the loaned amount payoffs greater than the full amount (principal + interest) they must pay back.
This concept of debt can be applied to things outside of financial accounting (accounting is just a branch of information theory that deals with economic and financial transactions). Technical debt. Management debt. Personal Habit debt. Technological debt. Political debt. All of these arise when our short-term decision’s and actions lead to long-term negative consequences. In the end, we always have to pay.
For 2020, we had to fork out a rather large interest payment to nature. Globalism has created an extremely connected world. These connections allow viruses to spread more quickly and over vast areas. Institutions around the world were not ready (and are still struggling) for this payment, and the world paid/is paying dearly.
At the end of 2020, I’ve gained a better appreciation for understanding my transactions with nature. I am not only attempting to stay solvent, but to joint venture with nature to create “shared assets” before I incur any interest.
System Tinker 