And just like real debt, you can just walk away from it at any time with no obligation right, not even on your credit rating? Just look at the debt and say "don't want you no more" and the debt says "aw shucks. Guess you don't feel the benefit of paying me. I can understand. So all right.
I won't complain.", and the debt goes and disappears, down some dark alley with a bottle of scotch, no debt collectors ever hound you about it, and you never hear from the debt again.
That kind of debt, right?
But wait there's more! I forgot to mention that even if you walk away you get to keep what you bought on credit, without any further payment of any kind and it continues working in its current state, forever - you just can't improve or renovate it if you walk away from the debt.¹
That kind of debt, right? If so then perfect analogy.
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¹ literal lie though, yes you can. you can totally still improve it real quick. I'm afraid I'll have to add $150,000 to your technical debt though, which you can walk away from any time. still want this real quick $50 change though? It might be $50 but it's $150,000 in debt though.
Sure, defaulting does decrease your credit rating, as your example of 50 $ change for 150000 $ more in debt illustrates.
And yes, there is a point further borrowing will be rejected, as sibling comments in this thread mention.
So, excluding the actual strawman numbers, analogy still holds very well.
I "defaulted" on the loan of replacing a script I wrote in 2 minutes in autohotkey (a windows scripting language). I'm never going to write it properly.
Now explain to me how defaulting on this technical debt has hurt my credit rating.
Is the next time I open a new autohotkey script is it going to say to me "Now wait a minute. What about all the debt you defaulted on last time? I'm not going to let you write a quick and dirty script! You'll default on ever rewriting it! Go do it properly as a source controlled project in Microsoft Visual Studio. I am not letting you write another script."
Is that what happens? No?
That autohotkey script is running now. Where's the debt? How is my credit rating worsened by defaulting on it?
It's debt you can default on at any time without any consequence, while being able to continue to use what you bought on credit.
Your version is like saying that the minute a squatter takes up residence in an abandoned building, he's just gotten $140,000 in debt, the cost of buying some land nearby and building a proper, albeit unfinished building with no electricity or heating.
And if, still in his abandoned building squat, he finds and burns some wood in the winter, watch out! He's just added $25,000 in debt to the $140,000 he already had, since that's what a proper HVAC system will cost in his properly built building. He went from $140,000 in debt to $165,000 in debt the minute he set fire to some wood.
But that's clearly very wrong. Maybe he'll live in that abandoned building for 4 years and then just walk away. Poof. The $165,000 in lousy-analogy debt disappears the moment he walks away.
That kind of debt, right?
But wait there's more! I forgot to mention that even if you walk away you get to keep what you bought on credit, without any further payment of any kind and it continues working in its current state, forever - you just can't improve or renovate it if you walk away from the debt.¹
That kind of debt, right? If so then perfect analogy.
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¹ literal lie though, yes you can. you can totally still improve it real quick. I'm afraid I'll have to add $150,000 to your technical debt though, which you can walk away from any time. still want this real quick $50 change though? It might be $50 but it's $150,000 in debt though.