Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi recently wrote a piece on Byo 24 that has been shared widely by the news pirates on WhatsApp. He argued that Zimbabweans are wealthier than Americans because they buy cars and build houses without debt. No mortgages. No student loans. No credit cards. The picture painted was one of a people living debt-free, while the West is drowning in obligations. It is a powerful image, but it is also misleading.
Debt is not always a curse. Debt, when managed in a functioning system, is the engine of modern economies. It is how ideas scale. It is how infrastructure rises. It is how risk is spread across millions of people instead of crushing one person alone. To say Zimbabwe is better off because its people buy with cash is to confuse survival with wealth.
Let us look closer. In the United States, a twenty-five-year-old can walk into a bank with nothing but a payslip and a credit history. They can drive out with a car. They can sign a thirty-year mortgage and move into a house. They can take a student loan and attend a top university, hoping that the degree will raise their lifetime earnings. These debts are backed by institutions that are predictable. The currency holds value across decades. Jobs are stable enough that repayment can be planned. The debt is heavy, but it rests on a functioning foundation.
In Zimbabwe, that foundation does not exist. Few people can borrow long-term because banks do not trust that salaries will hold value, or that currency will survive ten years, or that property rights will remain stable. So, Zimbabweans pay cash. They save for years to buy one car. They build a house brick by brick over decades, with no bank to speed the process. On the surface, this looks like strength. Underneath, it is evidence of collapse.
A house built in Zimbabwe, in cash cannot be used as collateral in most cases. You cannot walk into a bank and unlock its value to start a company. You cannot borrow against its walls to expand a farm or open a factory.
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Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist, calls this “dead capital.” Assets that look like wealth but cannot move. They sit there, impressive but sterile. In contrast, an American homeowner with a mortgage may not own their house outright, but they can leverage it. They can pull equity from it. They can move capital through it.
Mutisi’s argument celebrates ownership but ignores circulation. Wealth is not just in possession. Wealth is in the ability to put assets to work. Zimbabweans own much, but what they own is locked. It cannot be easily traded, borrowed against, or converted into larger ventures. That is why a society that is debt-free can still be poor.
Debt also carries a philosophy. To lend is to believe in the future. To borrow is to trust that tomorrow will arrive strong enough to pay today’s promise. A society built on credit is one that assumes stability, growth, and predictability. America’s mountain of debt looks reckless, but it rests on deep faith in tomorrow. Zimbabwe’s cash culture reflects a different philosophy. It is not virtue. It is fear. Fear that tomorrow will be worse. Fear that money saved will vanish through inflation. Fear that institutions cannot be trusted. So everything must be settled today. Cash up front, brick by brick.
This is why Zimbabwe’s so-called strength is really fragility. People buy cars without loans because no bank will lend. They build houses without mortgages because no financial institution can be trusted for thirty years. They pay school fees in cash because there are no affordable education loans. They are locked out of the very credit systems that allow others to dream beyond the size of their pocket.
The bigger tragedy is what this does to imagination. In Silicon Valley, a young person with an idea can pitch it to venture capitalists and walk away with millions in backing. That capital is debt and equity, rooted in a system that distributes risk and bets on imagination. That is how Apple, Google, and Facebook rose. Debt was the bridge from dorm room to Fortune 500. In Zimbabwe, try finding backing for a big idea. You will be told to pay cash. No one will risk millions on your dream because there is no system that rewards that kind of risk-taking. So dreams shrink to the size of a pocket. The ambition of a society becomes limited to what can be bought in cash.
Mutisi misses this deeper cost. He sees debt as a shackle. He does not see that debt is also a ladder. A ladder that Zimbabweans do not have. To own without debt may look like strength, but it is the strength of someone who must carry stones on their back because no one will lend them a wheelbarrow.
Consider how economies expand. A farmer in the US or Australia can borrow against their land, buy new equipment, and double output. In Zimbabwe, a farmer may own their land but cannot easily borrow against it because banks fear repossession laws, political interference, or currency collapse. So that land sits underused. Ownership without leverage becomes stagnation.
This is not to say debt is perfect. The United States is drowning in student loans. Many young people carry debts that will follow them for decades. The 2008 financial crisis showed the dangers of reckless lending. Debt can enslave. But debt can also liberate when tied to stable institutions. The balance is delicate, but the presence of a functioning credit system remains one of the engines of modern prosperity.
Zimbabweans have adapted to collapse with incredible resilience. Diaspora remittances build houses. Families pull resources to buy cars. Entire neighborhoods rise from hustle and sweat. This survival deserves respect. But we must be careful not to confuse survival with wealth. Celebrating cash purchases risks turning collapse into a badge of honor. It is like praising a man for walking barefoot because he cannot afford shoes.
The bigger picture is that Zimbabwe’s system stifles circulation. Economies grow when money moves. Credit is one way money circulates, multiplying through investments, businesses, and loans. Cash hoarding slows circulation. Assets that cannot be leveraged lock capital in walls and cars instead of releasing it into ventures that create jobs.
Mutisi’s celebration also ignores fragility. A car bought in cash is impressive until it breaks down and spare parts are unaffordable. A house built without a mortgage is prideful until water shortages and electricity cuts render it half-livable. Ownership without functioning systems around it is brittle. Wealth is not in the walls of a house but in the systems that keep that house powered, watered, and valuable.
There is also the question of intergenerational wealth. In the United States, mortgages and loans create assets that can be passed down, alongside credit histories that allow children to access even more capital. In Zimbabwe, families pass down houses, yes, but without a financial system that can multiply their value, the inheritance remains static. It does not compound. It is wealth stuck in stone.
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Philosophically, the question becomes: is it better to own one thing outright or to live in a system where ownership can be multiplied, leveraged, and circulated? Zimbabwe’s pride in debt-free ownership may bring comfort, but it also hides the truth that imagination has been foreclosed. The economy has no ladder. Everyone must climb with bare hands.
The United States has its flaws. Its debt system often preys on the vulnerable. Its capitalism is brutal. Yet it remains a place where risk can be scaled. Where imagination finds capital. Where tomorrow is trusted enough to finance today’s dream. Zimbabwe, in contrast, lives in perpetual present. No one trusts tomorrow enough to extend credit. That is not wealth. That is the philosophy of collapse.
Eng Mutisi is wrong because he measures wealth in visible assets instead of in circulating capital. A society can own cars and houses but remain poor if those assets are locked and lifeless. True wealth is not in static ownership but in dynamic leverage. Debt, when rooted in trust, is civilization’s way of turning imagination into reality. Zimbabweans may boast of being debt-free, but in truth, they live in an economy where imagination is bound by cash, and dreams are clipped to the size of a pocket.
The pride in debt-free ownership is understandable. After decades of inflation and collapse, Zimbabweans cling to what they can touch.
A car in the yard, a house of bricks, these are proof of survival. But survival is not prosperity.
It is time we face that hard truth.
Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo is an independent social justice activist and writer. He can be contacted on WhatsApp/Phone (+263780022343) or email kumbiraithierryn@gmail.com. You can read more of his articles on https://zealousthierry.art.blog/
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