Productive vs extractive debt

Equity as a claim on production but one that does not return a fixed value. Are equity holders “stakeholders” - can the concept of multistakeholder cooperative be used to mediate the relationship between equity and labor?

Emitting debt equals issuing credit. “Failing to honor all of debt” is the same as a gift, or is it the same as bankruptcy? Providing equity to a productive enterprise means that the equity is at risk, either from a breakdown of trust or from simple failure. Equity can have a voice in governance without the notion of “exclusive ownership” that is usually associated with this concept.

Debt as equivocal

It seems like the place to start is the “would-be” notion of debt. In contrast to simple exchange of commodities, in the sense of barter, a debt has a more fundamental being as a would-be. In exchange for “something” in the present, some habit in the future is exchanged. So a debt has the nature of a general term. Compare this to an exchange of vows, where both elements of the exchange are “would be’s”.

Life debt

Philippe Rospabe’s book “La dette de vie” describes the use of money-tokens as a symbolic acknowledgement of a debt that could never be settled. The english word “pay” comes from the french word “payer”, which has the root “pacify” - to make peace. This is an explicit connection to semiotics, with the money-token symbolizing the “would be”.

The lack of equivalence in exhange, the idea that such debts are never settled, seems to be such a nice fit with homotopy type theory. Perhaps a better reference is cohomology,

Debitum

Root of “debt” is “deber” - to be obliged. The words “due” and “duty” also arise from “deber”. So is the meaning of deber principally moral?

Socrates analyzes the problem in Plato’s Republic. In the dialogue, Cephalus endorses the view that justice means “always returning what one owes.” Socrates considers returning a sword to an insane neighbor. Polemarchus, Cephalus’ son, says what was meant was returning “what is actually due.” Douglas argues that “owe” and “debt” can be replaced with “duty” and “obligation”. Socrates’ thesis is that there are no duties that arise entirely from some prior act of borrowing. Debt is understood via duty and not the other way around.

Debt and sin