Quote:
Originally Posted by schola  This is subject is bigger and broader than the United States. Usury has been around for thousands of years and was banned by countless societies throughout the ages.
It comes down to understanding the true nature of "money."
That's what money is. Food. Fuel. It is the fuel of the economy.
You have to burn the fuel to get any use out of it. How can you rent fuel? You can't.
Money is the same except that no one realizes it. So the bankers are allowed to perpetuate their fraud.
The cow produces milk and offspring (provided you have a bull too) without you having to put any sweat equity into it. It produces value on its own. That's the difference.
Money doesn't do this. Money is only a medium of exchange. It doesn't create more value just sitting in your house like the cow in your field does.
Money doesn't create value. Any value created while using the money comes from your time and effort.
You're talking about renting a cow. I have no problem with renting cows. I have a problem with renting money.
I'm not condemning money. Only clarifying what it really is. |
I understand it is much bigger than the US, the US is just the first thing that comes to mind, being a stupid American myself... also I suppose we should differentiate between "usury"- excessive abusive loans taking advantage of people with no other options; and all loans/interest... because I think we're debating interest in general- I agree "usury" in the true sense can be quite abusive, and that current US credit cards are arguably closer to "usury" than to fair interest on legit investment loans.... if you repeatedly give money to people clearly in no state to repay-with-interest then shame on you for expecting it... and doubly shame-on-you for lobbying the government to protect your abusive practices... but also the debtors shouldn't be accepting credit cards to begin with (and the fact that people are in dire straits enough to use credit cards for medical bills and etc to me points to an insufficient government safety-net; but perhaps other more conservative people would rather take the Darwinian approach?)
But what
is "the true nature of money"?
To me, money is a convenient substitute for items of real value in society- for cows and apples and land and labor and knowledge and etc... And money
DOES have a value over time- the value of opportunity- again, taking it purely as shorthand for the underlying items of value...
If you buy a cow today, your herd multiplies as you breed/raise them, you end up with quite a few cows in 30 years... vs if you save your money and buy a cow in 30 years you just have the single cow. Interest is a more convenient way of doing the same thing- I can invest (loan) my money now, and have a herd of money in 30 years when I want to retire; or I can save it under my pillow and just have whatever I started with... of course we do pay taxes on the gains, and fees to the people who are actively managing our herd... but essentially it is the same thing, just without the inconvenience of personal dairy herds... (btw the retirement-cows are not as farfetched as they seem- some African groups traditionally count their wealth in cows, leading to way more cows than necessary and to environmental degradation... but that's a whole 'nother topic)
Also, you
CAN loan fuel! Think on-grid solar and the fluctuation between supply and demand depending on time of day/year?