Have you ever loaned money to someone only to never get it back? In the short story "The Rich Brother" by Tobias Wolff, the same situation arises when Pete loans Donald some money. Pete says, "You won't pay me back. You can't. You don't know how. All you've ever done is take. All your life" (Wolff 268). This is a saying that many people may hear throughout their lives. Many people loan money to their friends or relatives hoping someday to get the money back. A person should not be allowed to borrow money if he or she will not return it. Showing weakness or no interest in asking for the money back is very bad because eventually he or she will start to take advantage of the situation. People often take advantage of this situation because they feel out of friendship or respect, he or she will not be confronted. Thus, this eventually leads into hate, that builds up inside of a person until he or she can not take it anymore. .
One reason a person should not be allowed to borrow money is because it is habit-forming. There is an old saying, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime" (Anonymous). If Pete would have taught Donald how to make money instead of letting him borrow money all the time, then he would not have encountered any problems. When a person borrows money he or she will get this idea that if they ever need money again they will know who to turn to. For example, there was this one time when my family let my uncle and aunt borrow about $5,000 for a down payment to purchase a house. At that time we did not consider this a big issue because we figured since they were family it would be alright. We thought that .
maybe some day down the road if we needed the same help they would be there for us. Several years after that incident when we decided that we were going to do business together and needed a down payment for the business, they were again asking for us to help them out.
