Credit cards let you loan companies no credit check carry less cash, pay for things with a tap or a swipe, and shop online. But this convenience can come at a cost. The trick is to use your credit card wisely, and pay it back on time. You can think of the borrowing and money issuance privilege as a historic collective endeavour to create the circumstances where, if things get really bad, as they have now, governments of the day can draw down on the funds that it makes possible. And in fact, since the health not just of ourselves, but also of future generations, depends on us suppressing the virus, and funding research into vaccines and therapies, the borrowing is not just for those alive now. But there is an obligation too to afford those who come after us the same borrowing privilege. They will have their own disasters to fight, not least associated with risks we foisted on them via our neglect of the climate.