ChatGPT: The quote you're thinking of is often attributed to Henry David Thoreau, who said:
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
This means that many people focus on addressing the surface-level symptoms of a problem (the branches) rather than tackling the underlying cause (the root). Thoreau’s point is that true change or resolution comes only when we address the core issues rather than just the visible effects.
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I am convinced that USURY is the ROOT of ALL EVIL.
USURY is the mechanism of our enslavement.
USURY is why we are TAX SLAVES
USURY is why we are DEBT SLAVES
USURY is the mechanism by which “the wealth” is “transferred” from the working poor, and into the hands of “the rich” or “the wealthy”
“All wealth is derived from labor”
~ Adam Smith, paraphrased
ChatGPT: The quote you're referencing is close to Adam Smith’s ideas in The Wealth of Nations, though it may not be a direct quote. Smith argued that labor is a primary source of value, stating:
"Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things."
This means that labor is foundational to creating wealth, as it’s through human work that resources are transformed into valuable goods and services. Smith emphasized that the value of any commodity largely depends on the amount of labor invested in producing it.
Our entire money system is built on USURY.
So let me give you my own two personal definitions of USURY…
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Usury is the charging of money, for the use of money.
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Usury is the charging of any interest at all.
And until USURY is addressed, we will never be “free”
The Federal Reserve Note is in the final stages of life,
And the reason it failed, is the same reason EVERY usury scheme fails
Trump is just one man.
We don’t have much time to enact the monetary reforms we should make
I nominate Ron Paul for the job
I'm gonna play devils advocate here and say 99% of people here have no idea what they're talking about.
Usury is not the charging of ANY interest. It's the charging of unreasonable, predatory interest.
For example, there's a difference between a bank loan and a loan shark.
A bank loan (these numbers are made up for the sake of convenience), would be like 5% annually of the principle. That's it, if you borrow 100K, you off 5K a year. Part of your payments goes to paying down the principle so over the course of the loan, your interest payments gradually decrease. So to continue the example, say you pay down 5K in principle over the course a year. In year two of your loan, you owe 5% of 95K, or 4750.
In other words, in a normal loan, the amount of interest charged, effectively decreases over the life of the loan. There's nothing wrong with this, as that's how it's been ever since biblical times. Businesses need loans, banks have to make money, people should be compensated for lending what is theirs for others to use.
Usury is something completely different. Usury is the act of charging unreasonable interest or using predatory tactics to increase the debt massively in a short amount of time. For example, take 1K, in this case the interest rate may be 400% (usury is commonly 300-1000% interest rate) and it will compound. Meaning every month you don't pay it off completely the debt increases. So in this case, assume you only paid the interest for a single month (since often usury creditors will let you do that), your debt has now quadrupled to $4K, one more month, and it's $8K, month three and it's $16K, and so on and so forth.
Now you should be able to see a clear difference here. Usury is unreasonable, in that it literally creates a debt slave that can never get out of debt. A normal loan actually decreases in value over the life of the loan. And yes, I know in my example of a business loan the interest rate would more likely be in the 15-20% range, but thats to account for risk. Short term loans (a year or less) typically have higher interest rates because theres more risk involved for the lender and they come with a balloon payment at the end.
I'm ranting now, but my point stands. Most people don't know what usury actually is, and just claim any kind of credit/debt is usury. It's not, credit and debt IS an important part of any economy. If you couldn't get a loan, everyone would have to save up every penny needed to start a small business, or buy a rental property, etc. And if you eliminated "lending for profit" like some seem to want, then there's no incentive for people to allow for their money to be lent out, as they're taking on the risk of losing their money for zero incentive. Likewise, how would banks and credit unions function? How would they pay their employees?
Finally, something most people don't know, most states HAVE Ani-Usury laws. As far as how high the interest rate can be on things like loans to individuals, mortgages, and even business loans to small businesses. Medium and large businesses (typically those with incomes above 100 million) have different rules and they CAN get pretty high, but that's because the scale of money being borrowed is greater. Likewise subprime lenders (lenders who give loans to people and businesses with bad credit) can usually charge stupid high rates, but again, its because of the risk associated with lending to such people, and even this its still capped at somewhere around 40%. And in most places, charging compound interest on a loan is just straight illegal regardless of who you're loaning to.
TL;DR: People don't know what Usury actually is, and need to learn the difference between Usury and regular credit/loans.
Nice write up, I am still reading along with it.
Usury was defined and interpreted in numerous ways throughout the ages; what might be most alarming is that in our current age of human life, it is no longer a common word with a widespread understanding and definition; it has become a word of the past, an archaic term. Even as the crime of usury itself spirals out of control in these modern times.
Also.... If I am remembering correctly was usury not one of the highest crimes during the time of the Inquisition?
The old saying is "neither a lender nor borrower be," is it not?
In past societies, lending and interest was as common a practice as it is today; however many of these peoples had developed ways to alleviate the struggles of borrowers who were unable to repay properly, or within a measure of time. I like to think of the Roman practice of the year of jubilee, when (under circumstances) debts could be forgiven.
We have our own limited methods like bankruptcy, but in general the onus on the needy who are caught up in a web of borrowing find difficulties in achieving "proper" repayment and certain debt instruments which cannot be forgiven under any circumstances.
The modern schemes of usury have largely served to imprison people, institutions and even whole nations within a long-standing imbalanced system of constant defecits and debt (and wage) slavery, resulting in harmful consequences that have lasted for generations in some cases.
Yes, one can agree to the modern definition of usury as being akin to a VIG or a payday type loan and under standard conditions this seems to be logical. We have undoubtedly made such practices illegal.
But what about a scenario when pressure is applied to the other end of the scales and might cause a seemingly managable rate of interest to become untenable under the circumstances? Let me give a simple example.
Under a typical credit card, a monthly interest rate of 25-35% is commonly used. It is recommended to not use all of the limit on a credit card, 25% is the optimal amount to use in fact.
So let's say a lower level worker applies and is approved for a credit card and is approved, with a small limit of 6,000$. In his first year with the card he buys a washer and dryer, to save him the cost of the dry cleaners over time, along with some small purchases, and has about 2,000 on the card.
Payments are small and manageable, around a minimum of 75-80$ and he pays on time vigilantly, concerned for his credit score. The rest of the household income is mostly used up between groceries, rent and other bills, and a few small creature comforts.
Now after one year his car is on the fritz. The garage says he needs to shell out 3500$ to put it back into working order and thus enable himself to keep going to work for the foreseeable future. He hasn't paid off a great deal of the principal yet, maybe 500$.
So he uses the card to pay for the cost of repairs, and then after other issues, he is more or less maxed out at his 6K limit. He can just barely afford his minimum payments of 200$+ per month, and now under the rate he accepted, the monthly interest is about 175 dollars. He is paying off just a tiny fraction of the principal amount with each month's payment.
Normative logic and history would tell us eventually the man will receive promotions at work, or a better job, or something will come along to give him a leg up because of the natural economic growth occurring all through history which allowed for upward mobility.
In the past he could simply work harder and expect his wages would grow at such proportions that in a few years he would be able to tackle a greater share of the principal during his monthly payments.
However there is a new caveat in our modern world. The primacy of labor as declared by Adam Smith has been outmoded; a garbage man from 20 years ago earning 18$ an hour is STILL earning that same wage. Labor has been devalued and capital now experiences the consistent growth that a man's wages had in times before.
We could surmise that the man will experience this windfall through his participation in his company stock and their 401k plan, but wait! ... His company got rid of those plans a few years ago and cashed him out. He had to spend that small tranche on his wedding.
So he is left receiving 3% yearly wage increases, unable to move forward on paying off his credit card, every 200 or 300$ he pays down he ends up using for an emergency or Christmas presents at years end, and he has been paying on this meager 6K credit card bill for nearly a decade now.
Does this qualify as usury? Consider the problem as it is very alike to what many are experiencing today. Thanks for the time.
Usury is interest. In the past, it wasn't a percentage, it was a fee. Think of a pawn shop. Old style pawn shops, you take a ring worth $100, pay $125 to get it back. You take in a TV worth $25 and pay $50 to get it back. This is obviously a fee based system and, likely, the fee is based on the pawn shop's needs.
Then come the greedy who whisper to the ignorant people who pawned the TV that they are paying ONE HUNDRED PERCENT INTEREST (gasp gasp!) and they convince the people to elect them and they pass a law. No loans above 25%, not even with fees!
Now the pawn shop charges 25% on all items and disallows the things like TVs that are too cheap to pay their bills. Slowly, the pawn shops go out of business because most people don't have jewelry hanging around. But the elected official who "retired" from JP Morgan that passed the law to "help" the little people? He un-retires after his stint of insider trading for Congress and his bank is making money because now loans are small every day transactions because the pawn shops started evaporating and people must turn to banks for any kind of loan. And those loans, big or small, are compound interest at a "savings" of only 5%.
We are broken, thinking that compounding percentages is how we MUST loan money. No. A fee is how we must loan money. The fee drives commerce. The interest drives bank's fat bottom lines.