Different Countries, Same Debt Trap: When Culture and Systems Bankrupt the Poor
In the United States, people go bankrupt because of student loans and medical bills.
In Bali, people go bankrupt because of ceremonial obligations and funeral debt.
Different countries. Different cultures.
Same outcome: the poorest carry the heaviest burden.
I’ve lived long enough in both worlds to see the pattern clearly. Once you strip away the language, symbolism, and justification, debt is still debt and someone (usually those can least affort it) are always paying the price.
The American Model: Clean, Contractual, Relentless
In the US, debt is formalised and sanitised.
You borrow to:
- Get educated
- Stay alive
- Participate in modern life
- Stay Healthy (Medical & Hospital)
Miss a payment and the system doesn’t shame you spiritually — it penalises you financially.
Interest compounds.
Credit scores collapse.
Bankruptcy becomes a survival strategy.
It’s brutal, but it’s honest about what it is: a business.
The Balinese Model: Obligation, Status, and Silence
In Bali, debt doesn’t arrive as paperwork.
It arrives as expectation.
Funerals.
Cremations (Ngaben).
Temple ceremonies.
Offerings.
Processions.
Mandatory contributions.
There is no opt-out button.
Because opting out doesn’t just mean inconvenience — it means social exclusion.
Spiritual Debt Is Still Debt
This is the part people avoid saying out loud:
Spiritual obligation has quietly become financial extraction.
Families borrow money to:
- Avoid shame
- Maintain social standing
- Honour ancestors
- “Do the right thing”
And when repayment becomes impossible, they sell ancestral land.
Land passed down through generations doesn’t disappear because of greed, it disappears because of pressure.
Once the land is gone, it rarely comes back.
Follow the Money (Carefully)
This is where the conversation gets uncomfortable.
Ceremonies don’t fund themselves.
- Manku and ceremonial leaders gain status, influence, and steady income
- Offerings have become increasingly commercialised
- Many offerings are now mass-produced, often sourced from Java
- Local families pay more each year, not less
Tradition didn’t become expensive by accident.
It became industrialised.
Faith turned into logistics.
Devotion turned into supply chains.
The Poorest Always Pay More
Wealth absorbs ceremony easily.
Poverty doesn’t.
Poor families:
- Borrow to keep up
- Sell land to survive
- Delay education
- Pass debt forward to the next generation
And no one calls it exploitation — because it’s wrapped in culture, spirituality, and silence.
This Isn’t Anti-Culture
This matters, so let’s be clear.
This is not an attack on Balinese spirituality, belief systems, or tradition.
It’s a reflection on what happens when tradition becomes untouchable and questioning becomes taboo.
Every system — financial, religious, cultural — needs periodic reflection.
Without it, the most vulnerable are crushed under the weight of “this is how it’s always been.”
Same Story, Different Costume
America uses contracts and interest rates.
Bali uses obligation and social pressure.
One is enforced by banks.
The other by community expectation.
Both lead to:
- Bankruptcy
- Loss of land
- Intergenerational inequality
- Quiet, private suffering
The Question Nobody Seems To Want to Ask
At what point does honouring ancestors start destroying the living?
And who benefits when that question is never asked?
When spiritual duty becomes financial pressure, the poorest families lose ancestral land, wealth & lifestyle, while tradition quietly turns into an industry no one is allowed to question.
