[Still Growing]

I can't believe we are debating about whether "charging interest" should be allowed or not?!

To me the very notion of the gov't outlawing this would be like communism. Lets not forget that money is nothing more than a representation of STORED TIME. You use money to buy the time from somebody or some company. Your agreement is to repay the borrowed time with your future time at a premium. Now if you are smart you use the money to make more money but if you are a consumer you consume the borrowed time for pleasure now. In essence, when you borrow money you are cashing in your future for today. Now, the person or company loaning you their stored time deserves a return. You wouldn't pay interest on a car you didn't drive so why is it fair for you to ask for someone else to loose interest on money that you spend?!

If you borrow somebody else's STORED TIME then its taking their time even to give you the money. Obviously in a free market if someone chooses to make a legal business out of loaning money there is a value in the service they are providing or nobody would borrow the money. You simply shouldn't expect to take someone else's STORED TIME without having to pay something for it. If you personally disagree with loans then simply do not borrow it. The last time I checked loans were for consenting adults. Its YOU the consumer stealing from your own future earnings not the banks.

Some of the comments made in this thread simply show how little the average person understand the purpose of money and how money works. Its sickening to hear people say "They should do this" or "The gov't should do that". Sometimes I even hear people say "Do we really need another fast food restaurant here..." Well its not the gov't putting in McDonalds, its business people meeting a demand. Its like people think that every thing should be controlled or regulated.

I know that the market is not truly free but why would we discuss making it less free. I'll tell you why, its socialistic thinking that big brother should police us from ourselves. If you don't like the idea of paying interest then stop buying so much crap! Typically new wealth is created by those who stop consuming and find ways to STORE TIME. The people loaning money are the ones who understand what I'm saying above and the people who are consuming are the ones complaining about the interest. If YOU are complaining about interest then its YOU who should change, not the system.