Because it does damage. A good example of the damage it does is taking place in China right now, where people are lending money to make money.
“It sounds scary at the beginning, but then I found it’s common in many places, and my sister-in-law has been doing it for a long time,” said Ji, who supports a 2-year-old son and a paralyzed father. “I’m counting on the money. They’ve never missed a payment, and my money is protected by law.”
Note the confidence in the government. It is a critical intervention by the state in the market on behalf of usurers for the usury to do the most damage. In that way borrowers get a false confidence which makes life easier for the lenders.
Usury doing damage is not apparent, nonetheless the Greeks and Romans philosophers condemned it along with all major religions. God forbid it because it does harm.
1. In a loan someone lacks somethings. The lender has an excess. A loan is fine in this case, if there is no usury (AKA interest.) If there is usury (AKA interest) then the person who borrows the money must pay back more than he borrowed, from his industry. The person who takes the loan has to work harder to get stable, the person lending the money ends up with even more excess. By these means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
To lend without usury build community as it takes a human connection grounded in common wealth. With usury a loan becomes about aggregating power.
2. When wealth is aggregated in one persons hands, the economy becomes distorted, to whatever degree. We see in centrally planned economies there is at once a terrible shortage in one area and waste in another. In a market that does not support usury, it is almost impossible for one or a few people to aggregate power unto themselves and begin to distort the market. Distorted markets have terrible shortages of needful things and massive hulks of rusting waste.
3. More to come...
Instead of property redistribution, it is better to have no exceptional accumulation to begin with.
The solution is not more regulations, but less. And non-enforcement of "interest" on loans, as we do not enforce gambling debts either. Just leave the market alone, and watch usury evaporate.
“It sounds scary at the beginning, but then I found it’s common in many places, and my sister-in-law has been doing it for a long time,” said Ji, who supports a 2-year-old son and a paralyzed father. “I’m counting on the money. They’ve never missed a payment, and my money is protected by law.”
Note the confidence in the government. It is a critical intervention by the state in the market on behalf of usurers for the usury to do the most damage. In that way borrowers get a false confidence which makes life easier for the lenders.
Usury doing damage is not apparent, nonetheless the Greeks and Romans philosophers condemned it along with all major religions. God forbid it because it does harm.
1. In a loan someone lacks somethings. The lender has an excess. A loan is fine in this case, if there is no usury (AKA interest.) If there is usury (AKA interest) then the person who borrows the money must pay back more than he borrowed, from his industry. The person who takes the loan has to work harder to get stable, the person lending the money ends up with even more excess. By these means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
To lend without usury build community as it takes a human connection grounded in common wealth. With usury a loan becomes about aggregating power.
2. When wealth is aggregated in one persons hands, the economy becomes distorted, to whatever degree. We see in centrally planned economies there is at once a terrible shortage in one area and waste in another. In a market that does not support usury, it is almost impossible for one or a few people to aggregate power unto themselves and begin to distort the market. Distorted markets have terrible shortages of needful things and massive hulks of rusting waste.
3. More to come...
Instead of property redistribution, it is better to have no exceptional accumulation to begin with.
The solution is not more regulations, but less. And non-enforcement of "interest" on loans, as we do not enforce gambling debts either. Just leave the market alone, and watch usury evaporate.
Ezzekiel: The wicked is he who exacts usury or excessive interest. So reasonable interest on cattle or grain that have babies may not be so bad, but usury on gold or credits that creates a mort-gage death-gamble among those who borrowed 10 Principal and owe 11 with interest in which P/(P+I) survive and I/(P+I) is the worst, the proverbial "sin that leads to death."
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