What is the opposite of Usury?

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  1. Aya Katz profile image84
    Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

    I just saw the word "usury" used in a serious, derogative way on the internet. How many people feel usury is bad? What is usury, besides a high interest rate? And is there another term for when you lend money to people and they won't pay you enough interest -- like when your bank won't pay you enough interest on savings to keep up with inflation? What is the opposite of usury?

    1. dutchman1951 profile image62
      dutchman1951posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Main Entry: usu·ry
      Pronunciation: \ˈyü-zhə-rē, ˈyüzh-rē\
      Function: noun
      Inflected Form(s): plural usu·ries
      Etymology: Middle English usurie, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin usuria, alteration of Latin usura, from usus, past participle of uti to use
      Date: 14th century
      1 archaic : interest
      2 : the lending of money with an interest charge for its use; especially : the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates
      3 : an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest; specifically : interest in excess of a legal rate charged to a borrower for the use of money


      the opposite, would be fairness, legal reaasonable charges, I would think

      Jon

  2. thranax profile image73
    thranaxposted 14 years ago

    It basically means stealing. I don't think there is a clear opposite. There isn't one on Thesaurus.com nor dictionary.com

    ~thranax~

    1. Aya Katz profile image84
      Aya Katzposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Interest is stealing?

      1. profile image0
        A Texanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

        I would say a very, very high rate of interest is unfair, don't know about stealing. People enter into stupid deals sometimes, you know like with mortgage companies?

        1. ledefensetech profile image69
          ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Just because you consider an interest rate too high doesn't matter unless you're the borrower.  If someone is willing to pay 20% interest who are you to say that's too high.  If the lendee thinks the interest rate is too high, they'll pass on the loan.  If they think the interest rate is just right or too low, they'll take it.

          Likewise the lender has to find the right amount of interest to charge.  Too low and they don't get a good return, too much and the lendee will walk away.  What's wrong with that?

          1. profile image0
            A Texanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Thats kinda what I said

            1. ledefensetech profile image69
              ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

              It sounds like you have an absolute maximum number in mind here.  120% interest compounded daily is too much, or some such.  That is an assumption on my part, and if that assumption is wrong, I apologize.  I just happen to think that the terms of borrowing should be between the lender and lendee, nobody else.



              You always have a choice.  Sometimes it's a choice among bad choices, but nobody said life is particularly fair.  Besides can you read another person's mind and know for a fact what their sense of morality is?

              1. tantrum profile image59
                tantrumposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                I don't need to read a person's mind to know that too high interests is a kind of fraud, more so ,if that person doesn't have another choice.
                And if you say that everyone has a choice, you haven't lived enough.

                1. ledefensetech profile image69
                  ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  I don't think you've lived enough.  You can make whatever choice you want, but you can't choose the consequences of your actions.  So you better make your actions good ones.  If you think an interest rate is too high, walk away.  You're not me and can't make that decision for me, nor can you do it for anyone else.

                2. profile image0
                  A Texanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  I have lived a long time and been through more than the average and not so average person, I always, repeat always had a choice! Sometimes that choice was going hungry but I did not let someone screw me so I could get some bacon!

                  1. tantrum profile image59
                    tantrumposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                    lol Sometimes life is not that easy !
                    An example : what if your child is sick and going to die if he doesn't get surgery done? What if you need money for that surgery ? Will you let him die, or would you ask for the money even at high interests ?

      2. tantrum profile image59
        tantrumposted 14 years agoin reply to this

        If it's too high it is.

        1. profile image0
          A Texanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Not if its agreed upon!

          1. tantrum profile image59
            tantrumposted 14 years agoin reply to this

              sometimes you have no option and that'sstealing. Maybe it's not ilegal but it's a sort of moral fraud.

            1. profile image0
              A Texanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

              How could you not have an option?

              1. tantrum profile image59
                tantrumposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                If you're desperately in need of money, you don't have any option. You have to ask for a loan. If the interest is high you have to accept it anyway. Do you remember  gangsters  ? they used to lend money on high interests.

                1. ledefensetech profile image69
                  ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  If you're stupid enough to borrow money from the Mob, then you deserve everything you got.  Let's be honest, the vast majority of those loans are to cover gambling debts.  Another life lesson, don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose.  Here's another, look a twofer.  Don't think you can gamble and strike rich, you can't.  Stupid people get themselves into situations like that, then they moan and cry for someone to save them from their own stupidity.

          2. dutchman1951 profile image62
            dutchman1951posted 14 years agoin reply to this

            what about these new credit card rates, raising the rate without asking, or giving you a chance to say yes or no?

            thats illegal I think

  3. Aya Katz profile image84
    Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

    Ledefensetech, I agree that we always have a choice. But for the sake of argument, what about someone who has no better choice than to leave money in the bank. What should we call an inadequate interest rate, in that case?

    1. ledefensetech profile image69
      ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You can always shop around from bank to bank to find the highest interest rate offered, but higher rates usually mean more risk.  Of course I'd be leery of putting my money in a fractional reserve bank, but if you absolutely have to do it, I'd look for a credit union or regional bank.  Less chance of spectacular meltdowns there.  In that case you'd have to weigh the benefits of a higher interest rate vs the risk you're assuming.  In the case of a fractional reserve bank what you're really doing is letting the bank borrow your money.  If more people thought of it that way, well the banking industry would look much different than it does today.

      1. Aya Katz profile image84
        Aya Katzposted 14 years agoin reply to this

        Well, that's my point. I know I have a choice. I know I'm responsible for what I do, whether I am the borrower or the lender. What I am trying to understand, here, is what the majority of people think. How come they have a bad word for exorbitant interest, "usury", but no derogatory term for inadequate interest?

        What are they thinking? What motivates them? Don't they know that the way things are set up, they are lenders, too?

        1. ledefensetech profile image69
          ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          No people don't understand that.  Banks deliberately mask that from people because then their depositing habits would change. It's one thing to think you're depositing your money into a bank and you can get it back at any time.  It's another thing entirely to know you're lending your money to a bank and if they have too many bad loans, you'll not get your money back.

          By letting people think that they deposit their money and they can get it whenever they want, the masquerade as a fully reserve bank when in reality they are not.  In other industries this would be labeled fraud.  That's why bank runs periodically happen.  People will get scared that the bank is overextended with too many bad loans and people won't get their money back, so they rush to the bank to get their money out, which precipitates the very thing they were afraid of.

          Usury also, in the West, comes from Christian theology.  Since Christ taught that you should succor your brother in his time of need, the Church declared usury (the charging of interest) a sin.  This began to change, oddly enough by the Templars (a holy order of Christian knights) who invented many of what are considered to be modern banking structures.  The Templars charged interest mostly due to costs incurred by transporting and storing gold and silver.  It's also one of the reasons the order was destroyed.

          But the Templars opened up a floodgate.  Venetian merchants started charging interest as well as other nascent banking groups.  As these banks proliferated, the definition of usury had to undergo a change as nobody wanted to be considered sinful for charging interest.  Thus, in time, usury came to be associated with "unfair" or abnormally high interest.  Modern government have used usury, among other tactics, to convince people that they should control the banking and monetary sectors at least in the West.  They force Third World nations to use central bank policies through organizations like the IMF.

          1. Aya Katz profile image84
            Aya Katzposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I didn't know that much about the Templars, but I knew usury was a Christian concept. That's why it's so shocking to see leftists use it!

            1. ledefensetech profile image69
              ledefensetechposted 14 years agoin reply to this

              Many leftists are ignorant of history and they only use usury because it's a word that has shock value. Really lefties have a rather low opinion of their fellow man if they think people are as ignorant as they suppose them to be. 



              The problem is dutchman is that you don't have a free credit market and that because the government waffles back and forth between giving creditors more power or debtors more power in negotiating contracts that you get the unholy mess we have today.  Ideally the terms of the granting of credit would be drawn up between the two parties which should include clauses on non-payment and arbitration so that both parties are protected.

  4. Aya Katz profile image84
    Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

    I assume the credit company can't raise its rate on a pre-existing debt it carries except within the notice terms set forth in the original agreement.

    People often don't read the original agreement.

 
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