While inheriting wealth is dominant trend in society, I inherit Debt

In a social arrangement, the faculty of reason is activated to advance social justice for the distribution of benefits and burdens that accrue from the social arrangement.

But the question is who would bear the burden? The most productive member of the society......right?

Similarly, in a family, we inherit many things from material legacy to cultural legacy to family bonding and unique traditions of the family. This material & cultural legacy is passed on from one generation to the other-- it acts as a support system and helps in healthy evolution and upward social mobility.

While meritocracy and familial gifts/inheritances are often contested, and become contentious discourse, upward social mobility or downward social mobility is always subject to material possessions, which is the reason why socio-economic development always takes center stage.

A family is the constituent unit of a society and perhaps the decentralized unit of the society. If we further break it down, in general, three generations at any given time live in a family, and they sustain the family values and cultures. Adults assume the responsibility of the dependents.

Inheriting wealth and consolidating multi-generational socio-economic position is a dominant phenomenon in society, and this often comes in conflict with meritocracy.

But from an opposing angle....not always you are made to inherit wealth, you could inherit debt too. It's not utopian, it's very much prevalent in some sections of the society.

If you ask me I am one of those who inherit the familial debt. From the last two generations, this has almost become a normative statement that the young adult who starts working would take the burden of familial debt.

A person who was not a part of the decision-making because he was an infant at that time is made to bear the burden of debt retrospectively. As such if a young adult outrightly denies to take up the burden no one would sanction him legally, but that will affect the familial and emotional bonding in the family, and may even disparage the family ethos.

Cultural, material, and emotional strands of a family are intertwined, they are not different silos. India is an emotional country, and even more so family bonding. I am proud of this legacy of emotional and strong family bonding. But I have reservation when it comes to unilaterally imposing the debt upon the young adult without consulting and deliberating with the person under consideration.

I belong to a lower-middle-class family. Many a time, we choose to do something which may not align with our skillsets or passion, for the fulfillment of our immediate needs.

My father has told me that he had taken up the debt burden when he was a young adult and now it's my turn to carry that burden, and it has become a tradition, in my family. It's not like I do not want to fulfill it, but I will find it unjust if I have to say the same thing and pass it on to the next generation, my kids when they grow into young adults. No, I will never pass on this debt burden to the next generation.

No matter what adversary/challenges I have to face to close this multi-generational debt, my next generation will not carry this burden anymore. I have made up my mind and have already devised a long-term plan to end this multi-generational debt. It could be frustrating, and the pain could be excruciatingly go longer, but I would not give up until I settled this.

Debt denies freedom.

Every single day I feel like I have a restricted choice because of this generational debt passed unto me and that also obfuscates meritocracy at many levels, my skillset may also find it struggling when I am preoccupied with a pile of generational debt.

However, I will make sure that the next generation will exult their freedom.

Debt always weakens a person. But intergenerational debt is like a sentence of slavery because you can not pay yourself and you are made to pay for others in perpetuity. Such a position always restricts social mobility, restricts choice, restricts freedom, narrows down opportunities and one is made to work harder than his counterpart with equivalent qualifications.

Last but not least, inequality is often debated in public discourse, and in liberal democracy, it is the poster boy. Equitable distribution of resources is often advocated to change the social position in society and offer equitable social mobility. But you believe it or not inequality is deep-seated structurally at many levels; intergenerational debt is one of them and such debt is appropriated in family and society by emotions and family bonding, and a young adult is pushed into the vicious cycle of inter-generational debt.

It's always a luxury and privilege to inherit wealth and be aided as a status symbol, but not all in society have such privilege. The dark side of inheritance is when someone is made to inherit debt; that intergenerational, multi-generational debt becomes a driver of inequality, in that case, he is made to pay everybody but himself.

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