There's no conclusion to this thread. I do wonder how widespread this mindset is though. Is it predominant in young people or across generations? In the US or more internationally? Is it mostly exclusive to reddit "am I the asshole" respondents? Who knows.

Surely it requires some cognitive dissonance, too, though, because if you accept that it is possible to be indebted to someone, then how can you not realize that everyone is constantly indebted to one another? Or do you only recognize contractual obligations as real...?

"You/I/they don't owe anyone anything" is really the thought-terminating cliche of this era though, and it's one that undermines the idea of a social construct.

You become ultra wealthy by extracting wealth from the labor and resources of others. A lot of wealthy people also creatively evade their taxes! So, in a quite real sense, (at least some of) that money isn't meant to be theirs, and they do in fact owe the rest of society financially.

It sounds like they might be confusing it (or malicious actors could be conflating it) with the MEXT scholarship program for foreign students.

Imagine if the people in charge of the English translation of the KonMari books had insisted it be translated as, "Does this item make your heart flutter?"

very clever hahaha