> Ask the public, and they'll tell you it's good if there's more money in the credit column than the debit column.
That's because the public is used to hearing the terms used by entities who are using them in the accounting sense, but where the member of the public in question is external to the entity whose accounting the term refers to.
So credit -- and outward flow of value -- sounds good, because when the public hears it from another company, its usually because they are the sink to which value is flowing (and debit -- an inward flow -- sounds bad, because the member of the public hearing an external entity use the term is usually the source from whom the value is flowing.)
Of course, neither is intrinsically good or bad, they are good or bad relative to a particular actor based on whether the account they refer to is internal or external to the actor. Debit is just inward flow of value to an account, credit is outward flow of value from an account.
> What's an account? Isn't it a container for money?
That's not a bad approximation; a better approximation would be "a named accumulation of flows of value".
> Accounting turns many concepts upside down... and I always fail to bend my mind enough to grasp it.
Interestingly, all the concepts you list that the public perceives in a way which you seem to think conflict with the accounting view actually reflect limited subsets of the accounting view from a narrow perspective, which are subsumed within the more general view of accounting.
Accounting doesn't turn them upside down, it just broadens them.
That's because the public is used to hearing the terms used by entities who are using them in the accounting sense, but where the member of the public in question is external to the entity whose accounting the term refers to.
So credit -- and outward flow of value -- sounds good, because when the public hears it from another company, its usually because they are the sink to which value is flowing (and debit -- an inward flow -- sounds bad, because the member of the public hearing an external entity use the term is usually the source from whom the value is flowing.)
Of course, neither is intrinsically good or bad, they are good or bad relative to a particular actor based on whether the account they refer to is internal or external to the actor. Debit is just inward flow of value to an account, credit is outward flow of value from an account.
> What's an account? Isn't it a container for money?
That's not a bad approximation; a better approximation would be "a named accumulation of flows of value".
> Accounting turns many concepts upside down... and I always fail to bend my mind enough to grasp it.
Interestingly, all the concepts you list that the public perceives in a way which you seem to think conflict with the accounting view actually reflect limited subsets of the accounting view from a narrow perspective, which are subsumed within the more general view of accounting.
Accounting doesn't turn them upside down, it just broadens them.