This will seem even more relevant closer to the end of the month.

It's not just because of my massive student loans that my ears perk up whenever I hear people talking about anything related to debt. (That's a very big reason, but not the only reason.) It's intriguing how you can't talk about debt without getting caught up in a whole web of issues: morality, justice, fairness, retribution. The ties that bind you to your creditor/debtor are unlike any other human relationship. I've never "met" the entity to whom I owe much money, yet I feel a responsibility to that entity that outweighs and will outlast many of my other relationships.

For Christmas, Stonewall bought me a copy of Payback, by Margaret Atwood, which I just started reading. It's a sort of meandering but interesting long essay about debt and all of the different subjects that intersect with it. I think he got it for me because he knew of my interest in the theme of debt, but also because of how much I enjoyed reading the Handmaid's Tale and the Blind Assassin last year. I'm not that far into it, but I'm now reading her exploration of how notions of fairness and reciprocity are so central to human interactions that we see them in early childhood behavior, throughout centuries of literature, and in ancient mythologies.

To some extent, she's talking about the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."), but she also writes about the Eye-for-an-Eye Rule ("Do unto others as they have done unto you.") The latter is, of course, more directly related to the idea of fairness as retribution. If I expect that you might later mete out the same punishment--or benefits--that I have afforded you, it gives me the incentive to treat you fairly.

This whole line of thinking reminded me of a piece of an article in the Atlantic that I read a very long time ago. I tracked it down, and here is the relevant passage:

I'll be dictator. Here's how we play: An economist puts some money on the table—let's say $1,000. Since I'm dictator, I get to decide how you and I are going to split the cash; you have no say in the matter. How much do you think I'll give you?

Now, let's play the ultimatum game. We've still got $1,000 to play with, and I still get to make you an offer. But the game has a wrinkle: If you don't like the offer I make, you can refuse it. If you refuse it, we both get nothing. What do you think I'll do here?

As you've probably guessed, people tend to play the two games differently. In the dictator game, the most common offer is nothing, and the average offer is around 20 percent. In the ultimatum game, the most common offer is half the cash, while the average is around 45 percent. Offers of less than 25 percent are routinely refused—so both players go home empty-handed.

Economists scratch their heads at this. In the first place, they are surprised that some people are nice enough to share with someone they don't know, even in the dictator game, where there's nothing to lose by not sharing. Second, economists predict that people will accept any offer in the ultimatum game, no matter how low, because getting something is better than getting nothing. But that's not what happens. Instead, some people forgo getting anything themselves in order to punish someone who made an ungenerous offer. Money, it seems, is not the only currency people are dealing in.

So in the dictator game, there's little chance for your counterpart to get you back for unfair treatment. But in the second game, if your counterpart will have a chance to punish you for unfair treatment, they're likely to take it. So we have an incentive to avoid that situation.

I can see where Atwood might be going with this, too, although I haven't gotten far enough to confirm it. If you do something nice for me (lend me money), you expect me to treat you fairly (pay you back). There is a great deal of social weight involved in maintaining this standard of interaction. If I don't treat you fairly (skip town and leave no forwarding address), I'm therefore a deadbeat and can have my financial future and credit scored jeopardized. I have a very strong incentive to avoid that situation and to make my payments on time.

Maybe Margaret Atwood will have some tips on dealing with the stress of thinking about your debt. I'll keep reading.