[beachstartup]

this is such a tired internet cliche.

in reality the bank will force you into bankruptcy, seize all your assets because they're at the top of the payback list, and blacklist you from ever running a business or borrowing money again.

in other words, you lose.

[djsumdog]

Collection of debt must be enforced by violence. Always. In developed countries we've scaled down the violence (we black list your credit, take your house and do not loan to you again instead of breaking your legs or killing your children), but there is still some level of violence.

It's not a cliche. It's reality. If you loan someone an insane amount of capital and are dependent on a return on that capital to keep your bank solvent, you are now dependent on them (e.g. "To Big to Fail") for your own business to not collapse. Interestingly enough, you can only extend credit to someone if you consider them an equal, at least at first. Removing this equality is how you can turn a person into property.

Debt and guilt are the same word in many languages (such as German) and debt has a large moral social construct attached to it (which is why people are hesitant to walk away from debt, even when the value of a house exceed what they'd pay on a load).

I highly recommend reading the book Debt the First 5,000 Years. It's the most comprehensive book I've read on the history of money, debt and slavery. They are all very closely related, and it will change the way you look at states, money and markets.

[evgen]

Except if you owe the bank a billion it is unlikely you actually have a billion in assets they can get their hands on. A bank that tried this to someone who owed them that much would soon find the auditors coming to visit and setting up shop for quite a while. The former management of this bank that went bust and was shut down by banking regulators is unlikely to have much leverage when it comes to blacklisting you...

[coldtea]

>in reality the bank will force you into bankruptcy, seize all your assets because they're at the top of the payback list, and blacklist you from ever running a business or borrowing money again.

You'd be surprised. People have recovered from such "bankcrupcies" time and again, including the current POTUS.