(urth) Interest

[John Smith]

Judaism, Christianity and Islam have all, at times, condemned the lending of money at any rate of interest at all.  Usury today means a very high rate of interest, especially a rate higher than that allowed by law.  

Sometimes religions have presented philosophical reasons to oppose interest, like it being unnatural for money to breed money, but the underlying objection seems to be that interest charges hurt the poor.

However, if lenders cannot earn a return, they will not lend money at all.  Compounding the problem for the poor, lenders charge higher rates for less credit-worthy borrowers.   So you have some very high rates for credit cards and pay day loans.  And if government completely bans high interest rates, the poor are forced to go to loan sharks, who are even more greedy than pay day lenders.  No wonder economics has been called the dismal science.

To come back to Gene Wolfe , I think we all agree that Wolfe is a conservative.  One of the great things about him, however, is that he is not an apologist for the status quo.   He shows us the cruelty and corruption of today in his societies on Urth and Sainte Croix and the Whorl and Blue.  He has a fearless vision of what we all face.  When Nicholas complains that Dr. Island has lied,  Dr. Island says, "if you are released you will have to deal with your society, which will lie to you frequently."  That's a good thing to remember.


Best wishes,

Jack


--- On Tue, 5/19/09, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:

> From: David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Urth Digest, Vol 57, Issue 16
> To: urth at lists.urth.net
> Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 10:09 AM
> Steven---
> 
> Interest rates of 35%, the max now allowed in the US, is
> usury, because it exceeds 20%. It is most commonly found in
> credit card and payday loan
> "fine print."
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 21:27:13 -0400
> From: Steven <mcquaryq at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Urth Digest, Vol 57, Issue 16
> To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Message-ID:
> <F7033598-E841-4F49-A456-78F04EE72F78 at comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii";
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> 
> On May 18, 2009, at 6:05 PM, Daniel D Jones wrote:
> 
> 
> >> >> Did you know that usury, which has been
> illegal since
> >> >> the Byzantine emperors, is now legal in
> the US?
> >>     
> 
> Still illegal in the Muslim world, that bastion of social 
> equity...but more commonly called 'interest' in
> these parts, not  'payday loans'.  Now legal? Wha?
> 
> 
> 
> Steven
> 
> 
> 
> 
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