Usury: The Charging of Interest

[TheSurveyor]

Usury is the charging of interest on lent money.

It is probably one of the greatest crimes in the history of humanity and has led to countless wars, genocides, etc.

Usury is so invasive in modern life that people can now make payment plans on fast food.

The purpose of this thread is to thoroughly discuss usury, the history of it. How to avoid participating in it and how to minimize its effect on our daily lives.

 

[Thomas More]

The justification I have seen is that :

1)Usury should only be considered to apply for really high interest rates, and that low interest loans are legitimate
2)Debt can be discharged in bankruptcy, so the risk is on the lender. In the past, debtors could be thrown in debtor's prison or sold into slavery. They might also have their knees broken or their children killed to help ensure that they paid up. None of that is true with current Western lending.

 

[TheSurveyor]

The justification I have seen is that :

1)Usury should only be considered to apply for really high interest rates, and that low interest loans are legitimate
2)Debt can be discharged in bankruptcy, so the risk is on the lender. In the past, debtors could be thrown in debtor's prison or sold into slavery. They might also have their knees broken or their children killed to help ensure that they paid up. None of that is true with current Western lending.

I honestly think that any interest rate is usurious and we would be better if we went to the middle ages: collateral based lending. You couldn't borrow, what you didn't already have.

I do agree that bankruptcy is a good way to get out of debt, but doesn't actually solve the problem. People will still borrow at interest and that is the problem, which still leads to much higher prices for products. If you couldn't get a loan for a house, or a car. The price of those items would be much lower.

Also we don't have debtor's prisons, but we do have unforgivable student loans. Which should be illegal as you're giving someone with zero credit history, a loan, which they wouldn't have been able to qualify for in the private lending sector. Also artificially raising education prices.