Some of you still remember the time when people got wages every week. There was a lot of playing in pubs afterwards, somewhere even until the Sunday morning. Everything changed later. People of every social status and every profession were forced to the system of salaries paid after the whole month and advances paid between salaries. Although parts of this system are still alive, many things have changed with the use of debit cards. Direct debit services have done away with the concern about common payments and so the focus of personal finance changed to saving, borrowing and pocket money, i.e. money we have for everyday use. It is usually less than we would consider appropriate.

The best thing is to have no rules. The best thing is to keep your word; to live in a world where what you say is true. But from time to time, you can find a group of people who start to exploit another group – then comes a scramble and finally the state enters the space and dictates rules for both groups. This has gradually set up business rules - determining an adequate price, the obligation to comply with set hours of operation, ingredients, mandatory warranty, etc.  But even these rules bring the expected effect only to that degree to which we want to follow them, to which we accept them as our own.  A producer, who is obliged to provide information about the ingredients of a product, chooses a font which is not visible with a normal eye , every cunning fellow from both sides of the shop counter is trying to exploit the warranty period, etc.

In one book, the heroine gradually receives nickname “Offthehook” because that’s how she introduces herself all the time: “I’m off the hook.” But is should be clear that none of us is completely “with no commitment”. Indeed, it is almost an exact translation. This use is established already in ancient Greece. Prometheus was chained to a rock, obligatus, just as someone is bound with an oath.