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From: James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Integral types and own type definitions (was Re: Suggested method
 for returning a string from a C program?)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:20:36 -0400
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On 3/26/25 13:58, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
....
> The debit credit system is confusing.

It can be. But like most things, if you get a lot of practice with it,
it becomes clearer. There's actually good reasons why it was designed
that way, and if you become very familiar with accounting, you'll gain a
clearer understanding of why that is the case.

> For mortgaging, I deal with a bank which gets something wrong on
> statements: Would you believe it, they add together the value of the
> checking account, and the mortgqge account, both being positive. Then
> they call that the value of your account! E.g. if you have a $5,000
> balance in the checquing account, and $50,000 in the mortgage account,
> they call that a value of $55,000.  I wrote them an e-mail and they
> acknowledged this, but nothing was done; typical bureaucracy.
> They would not have made that mistake with -55,000 and 5,000.

In the contexts where I've seen them do this, it was not an error. They
determine whether or not you qualify for certain benefits by calculating
the sum of your asset account balances and debit account balances,.
That's because they're not trying to calculate your net worth - they're
trying to quantify how big of a customer of theirs you are. You're a big
customer if you have a large credit balance in your credit accounts, and
also if you have a large asset balance in your debit accounts, and
you're an even bigger customer if you have both, even if that leaves
your net worth at nearly $0.

Look at it this way: a rich man qualifies for a $1B loan, and deposits
the money in a new checking account with the same bank. The total value
of his two accounts is $0. Would that be an accurate representation of
how important of a customer he is, or would $2B be a more accurate
representation? Keep in mind that his financial status is good enough to
justify giving him that loan.