0139 - Valid transactions - 2020.06.01

Comic!

Comment:

If you drove me somewhere in your car, and I, in exchange, paid your car twenty bucks, would you consider that twenty to actually be yours? Does it make a difference if the car is rented or leased? Would you feel obligated to use that twenty on gas or oil or maintenance for the vehicle, or would it simply go in your pocket, part of your fungible assets? If I just deposited the twenty directly into your checking account, would you even notice, and, if you did notice, would you feel obligated to specifically use twenty bucks from that account on gas?

What is ownership? How real is ownership? How real is money? How real is a financial obligation?

What's the amount of money you stop caring about? Where's your threshhold for just ignoring an amount, and does it make a difference if that's an amount owed to you vs an amount you owe to someone else? Does it make a difference if you owe money to someone with a face vs an entity that doesn't?

If you went through your assets and marked how sure you are of owning them as a percentage - taking points off if your ownership is shared or disputed, if the thing could be taken away from you, if you'd forget about it when it was out of line of sight - how much would you really own?

Transcript:

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0139 - 2167/07/06/15:45 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, front door.
CP: There's... no way that transaction is actually valid.
LC: No, no, it went through, alright. A thousand Canadian consumer credits, plus taxes and transfer fees, in exchange for a handshake. Fuck me.
Zoa: Uh... what corporation owns your butlerbots?
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LC: The appliances all come with the apartment, and the apartment is school property, so... so I guess I just gave a thousand creds directly to Rosenthal.
CP: You absolutely should be able to ask for that money back.
LC: And tell them what, exactly? That I made a mistake?
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CP: .......Yes.
Zoa: Given Lee's and my presently... adversarial relationship with the college's administrative body, and the fact that both the apartment and I have full recordings of exactly what Lee just said, that may be a tough sell.
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CP: B-but you clearly didn't intend to, though. Right?
Zoa: People do things every day that they don't intend to, Mezzer Paratta.
Zoa: ...Or, at any rate, they certainly claim as much during their refractory period. That's why I always make sure to get paid up front.
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