Tweet
Polonius:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 75–77
Old Polonius counsels his hotheaded son Laertes, who is about to embark for Paris for his gentleman's education.
His logic is thus: lending money to friends is risky, because hitching debt onto personal relationships can cause resentment and, in the case of default, loses the lender both his money and his friend. Borrowing invites more private dangers: it supplants domestic thrift ("husbandry")—in Polonius's eyes, an important gentlemanly value.
Incidentally, in the days when Hamlet was first staged, borrowing was epidemic among the gentry, who sometimes neglected husbandry to the point where they were selling off their estates piece by piece to maintain an ostentatious lifestyle in London.
Stated another way:
I speak as an old mechanic, having at one time made my living with tools that belong to me, that I purchased with my own money. These were tools I stored and cared for myself, as I used them every day in my job. Tools are not cheap. Quality tools are especially not cheap. There is no bargain in the cheap tool. I have no interest in visiting Harbor Freight.
When you are a mechanic earning a living and have to buy your own tools, you quickly recognize why others should not be asking to borrow those tools.
In borrowing your tools the borrower saves money at your expense.
Also, too often they do not properly care for the tool, they do not clean the tool, and sometimes they break or lose the tool. It is also not uncommon for them to have the tool when you need it.
As a kid I watched my dad and some of his friends demonstrate all of these things as they occasionally, hesitantly, loaned an item to someone. Invariably it either didn't come back at all, or it came back broken or filthy, or came back months late and after an actual need for the item. Ultimately they all decided borrowing and loaning were bad ideas.
I have asked people — "why don't you buy one?" Their reply? "Why should I buy one when you have one…. I can just borrow it from you." Hardly any opportunism there. That line doesn't work with me.
In my lifetime I have spent what is realistically an enormous sum of money buying things that I needed or felt that I would likely need in an imagined future. I have a decal on one of my roller cabinets; it came from the Mac tool man. It says — don't ask to borrow my tools. All of us in the service department had decals like that, either from Snap-On or Mac. We all understood.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 75–77
Old Polonius counsels his hotheaded son Laertes, who is about to embark for Paris for his gentleman's education.
His logic is thus: lending money to friends is risky, because hitching debt onto personal relationships can cause resentment and, in the case of default, loses the lender both his money and his friend. Borrowing invites more private dangers: it supplants domestic thrift ("husbandry")—in Polonius's eyes, an important gentlemanly value.
Incidentally, in the days when Hamlet was first staged, borrowing was epidemic among the gentry, who sometimes neglected husbandry to the point where they were selling off their estates piece by piece to maintain an ostentatious lifestyle in London.
Stated another way:
I speak as an old mechanic, having at one time made my living with tools that belong to me, that I purchased with my own money. These were tools I stored and cared for myself, as I used them every day in my job. Tools are not cheap. Quality tools are especially not cheap. There is no bargain in the cheap tool. I have no interest in visiting Harbor Freight.
When you are a mechanic earning a living and have to buy your own tools, you quickly recognize why others should not be asking to borrow those tools.
In borrowing your tools the borrower saves money at your expense.
Also, too often they do not properly care for the tool, they do not clean the tool, and sometimes they break or lose the tool. It is also not uncommon for them to have the tool when you need it.
As a kid I watched my dad and some of his friends demonstrate all of these things as they occasionally, hesitantly, loaned an item to someone. Invariably it either didn't come back at all, or it came back broken or filthy, or came back months late and after an actual need for the item. Ultimately they all decided borrowing and loaning were bad ideas.
I have asked people — "why don't you buy one?" Their reply? "Why should I buy one when you have one…. I can just borrow it from you." Hardly any opportunism there. That line doesn't work with me.
In my lifetime I have spent what is realistically an enormous sum of money buying things that I needed or felt that I would likely need in an imagined future. I have a decal on one of my roller cabinets; it came from the Mac tool man. It says — don't ask to borrow my tools. All of us in the service department had decals like that, either from Snap-On or Mac. We all understood.
Comment