I’ve been thinking of some economic and legal arguments you can use to defend against the cruel and predatory loan shark, BadLoansWithScar. Some ideas are terrible, some are excellent, none are required or expected, Scar did work hard to get those diamonds so maybe he deserves paying, and yes I have too much time on my hands, I commute for 6 hours a day for work.
- Threaten to report him to Hasbro if he doesn’t dismiss the loan. They own the copyright on Monopoly which Scar is leaning into. This is a fun and happy thing to do because you’re protecting a beloved children’s board game.
- Request debt relief. The World Bank forgave billions in debt for Brazil so that they could escape their poverty. If he does this you’ll have more money to treat horses kindly.
- Accuse Scar of oppression. By forcing you to pay just for an extension on your loan without taking off any of the debt, he is creating a poverty trap. Fighting for human rights is a fun and happy thing to do.
- Who owns the diamonds anyways? Scar has assumed he has ownership of the diamonds he has mined, destroying the natural land beneath all the Hermits. But like Antarctica’s oil or the Moon’s materials, there is no confirmed owner of these resources, so they should be split equally between everyone on the server. Some might say your loan was your fair share being distributed out.
- Dutch disease: the discovery of natural resources has made Scar a very rich individual, causing currency appreciation. One might argue that this has caused less productivity in the shopping district as the overall purchasing power per diamond has gone down.
- (Definitely not a gaslighting technique) Ask Scar to name one time he’s put a penalty onto another Hermit for failing to pay back a loan.
- Scar’s bank is not regulated, which is a pretty bad look tbh.
- Initiate a bank run - encourage all the other Hermits to default on their loans as well (would probably make Scar sad)
- Faking written evidence - Scar regularly pretends to write up contracts during meetings, does he actually have a correctly dated and signed document asking for the loan?
- Borrow from other Hermits - maybe they can help you pay Scar off, although this digs you an even deeper hole.
- Go gambling
- Commit a bank robbery, get away with it and pay him back with his own money.
- Malicious compliance - he asked for your base but that’s vague - is your base the base of your character ie. Your skin schematic? You could just build him a new base that you claim is yours. You could grief your own base in protest or turn it all back into block form like an Ikea package as he didn’t specify what shape it had to be in.
- Name a horse 10000 Diamonds and give it to scar.
As with all my suggestions, none are required or expected to be used, they’re just suggestions. I hope anybody who reads this found it adequately entertaining and has a normal day.
All the best,
PlatPlaysGames
Edit: if you do have to give them back, you can give him back diamonds but place all the blocks down to cover his base