On 01/20/2016 05:30 PM, dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
Nice write up. Usury, it can so quickly enslave people such that they
will no longer have time or life energy for spiritual cultivation.
Seventh.—Are Friends careful to live within the bounds of their
circumstances, and to avoid involving themselves in business beyond
their ability to manage; or in hazardous or speculative trade? Are
they just in their dealings, and punctual in complying with their
contracts and engagements; and in paying their debts seasonably?
That will work only when the world works according to plan. Since the
beginning of this century it hasn't. That was why bankruptcy laws were
made so that when things went sour people wouldn't be held accountable
for circumstances beyond their control. But a lot of those laws have
been taken away. Like I have been saying the economy is very lopsided
and skewed in favor of the privileged few.
-JaiGuruYou
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raph...@yahoo.com> wrote :
Re Bhairitu's post about the scandal that "just 62 ultra-rich
individuals . . . have as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity" :
The problem goes back to the acceptance of usury [pronounced YOUsury]
in western societies. That inevitably concentrates wealth in the hands
of those who are rich to start with.
Usury is, today, the practice of making immoral monetary loans that
unfairly enrich the lender.
In ancient India, Vasishtha forbade Brahmin and Kshatriya castes from
participating in usury.
St. Thomas Aquinas argued that the charging of interest is wrong
because it amounts to "double charging", charging for both the thing
and the use of the thing. Aquinas said this would be morally wrong in
the same way as if one sold a bottle of wine, charged for the bottle
of wine, and then charged for the person using the wine to actually
drink it. [Nice analogy!]
In The Divine Comedy, Dante places the usurers in the inner ring of
the seventh circle of Hell. That's close to the bottom.
As an alternative to usury, Islam encourages direct investment in
which the creditor shares whatever profit or loss the business may incur.
That's the key difference: not taking your kick-back in the good times
and still taking your kick-back in the bad times but seeing that we
are all in this together.
