Relative morality

Recently, a friend and I, while awaiting some one's visit from Bangalore, got talking on the vices of our other friends. Viswa (name changed), took a cell phone connection, yakked endlessly with his girlfriend in Bangalore and raked up a bill for 16,000 bucks. While doing this, he earnestly searched for jobs, found one in Bangalore in one of the leading IT firms, then threw the SIM card in a dustbin and left without paying the bill. Since he was my ex-colleague, the mobile operators called me to check if I have his number. I promptly gave them. They called him and harassed him to no end. He got irritated, gave them a cheque, bounced it, and changed his number again.

Needless to say that he didn't give me his new number. Later when we met up for a drinking session, he returned the harassment with relish and told me how unimportant his non-payment is to me and why I should have kept quiet.

On hindsight, I should have kept quiet. It is actually not important to me that he pays or not. This friend with whom I was discussing this topic, argued that the mobile companies are equally guilty for this. As per the procedures, they should have barred Viswa's number when the amount exceeds 6,000. They let him talk beyond the legal limits and now they can't 'just' blame him for the delinquency. In the same breath, he also accused the credit card companies for tempting the youth with free uncontrolled debt. The point is, if Viswa is to be blamed, so are these venomous multinational corporations. So they 'deserve' to be punished.

But isn't failing to pay your bills something to do with morality? I asked. So what's morality? Isn't it relative? While the mobile operators deviously let Viswa talk on, hoping that they'll choke him to pay, he happily exploited it and cheated on them. My friend replied. So one bad act cancels another.

Is it as simple as that, I wonder. Since morality is a deceptively relative term and often abused by our politicos, I prefer to use another term, state legal. A car is considered street legal if it is legally allowed to be driven on the public roads. A person is considered state legal if their life stays within the legal boundaries. And lives without hurting others intentionally. Failing to pay your bills may have different defintions in a moral context. But it's certainly a breach of contract and hence is illegal. And it hurts the company providing you those services. If eight out of ten customers fail to pay, the company files bankruptcy, which impacts its employees and in turn our economy.

A company uses certain business tactics to lure its customers which is legal to do. If you get tempted by the concept of credit cards, stack your wallet with several visas and masters, and go around binging, the card company certainly cannot be blamed. And for a mobile company to disconnect your services at 6,000 limit in a consumerist economy is not possible. If Aircel does it, Hutch will advertise that they don't have a ceiling and try to snatch subscribers from Aircel.

Finally, my friend, who wanted to buy a bike, approached Viswa to sign as a gauranter. He happily obliged. After taking the necessary signatures, my friend said that he's going to default and so the bike dealer is going to be after Viswa, hoping it'll shake him. Viswa gave a serious look, then widened his eyes and said, 'So what? I've faced these collection guys as a debtor myself, What's the big deal facing them as gauranter! Child's play!'