A DEBT-FREE WORLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 230, 30 September 1941, Page 4

A DEBT-FREE WORLD

can we not all own our homes and furniture free ol mortgage and debt ? How wonderful if every farm could he free of mortgage and bill of sale! “Why should not every shopkeeper and businessman be. clear of debts and bank overdrafts?” These questions are asked by the Economic Reform Associalion of Dunedin, which proclaims that “wo can have debt-free homes and farms and a debt-free country.” This last assertion is quite correct. The people of New Zealand can be a debt-free people if they so desire, by the simple process of not. borrowing. Let the first question be considered: "Why can we not all own our own homes and furniture free of imu , t":i"o and debt?” The answer again is obvious enough. We can if we want 10. Most people do in fact own their own furniture free of debt. They save the money first and buy the furniture with lheir savings. Many—perhaps not all, but manv more than do so could elect, to commence home-making in a tent, which would be entirely free of debt. By the time it. was worn out they could, with good luck, have saved enough moiiev to put up a small shack, again free of debt. As time went on they could add other rooms and appurtenances, and eventually come to the possession of a house upon which no interest has been paidAVhy do people not adopt this obvious and simple debt-free plan .’ Because they know that, to start with, it is cheaper and more convenient to build a reasonable-sized house, which will be properly designed and constructed instead of being the primitive structure which would result from the first-mentioned method. To build this better house requires more capital than most voting people possess, and so they borrow the money, and are quite content to pay the interest which they engage to pay. On balance, they prefer the better house, with its greater value, and its better conveniences to live in, than the inconvenience and ill-health resulting from living first, in a tent, then in a wltare with a leando added, and then a proposition which would be like the house that -lack built. This latter structure would be very difficult to s< II because it was designed too closely to personal idiosyncrasy, and in the event of the sale being effected the. price received would be lower than the interest payments on it. Individuals, municipalities and Governments borrow because. on balance, they decide that there is a greater advantage in getting some things first and paying for them afterwards, than in saving all the capital before commencing on the proposed asset, be it furniture or house, road or machinery, publie service or public utility.