Reinstate usury laws?! False Christians will stop at nothing :(

[Larry Lee]

"The ability to charge unlimited interest is not natural and not inevitable"

Who are these False Christians who want to destroy the financial infrastructure and Godly banks that Jesus Himself blesses?

Whoever they are, they're trying to limit all interest rates to a paltry 10% -- And thereby destroy capitalistic initiative by eliminating, for example, the extraordinarily reasonable 17.99% that Citibank charges me for the privilege of using their prestigious Visa® Signature Card. I'd gladly pay double that amount, out of the gratitude I feel for the respect Wal-Mart checkout clerks give me, when I flash my Visa® Signature Card in their general direction. Their awe is worth every $40.00 late-payment fee that Citibank regrettably requires me to pay.

Why is it that False Christians want to destroy the institutions that make us American?

But there is something we can all do about it - we can join Metro Industrial Areas Foundation's (IAF) "Ten Percent is Enough!" campaign, a national effort being launched today in Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago and Durham that seeks to reinstate usury laws to cap interest rates at 10 percent for credit cards and personal loans, including payday loans and rapid-return tax refund businesses. The IAF is one of the country's leading community organizing networks, founded by Saul Alinsky. The IAF has pioneered strategies to rebuild cities, create affordable housing and enact living wage laws and the local level, and now they are bringing their experience and deep local leadership into a major campaign at the national level. A similar effort is being launched in the United Kingdom today by the IAF affiliate in London.

IAF organizing is rooted in faith institutions, and one of the most provocative aspects of this campaign is the way it questions our economic arrangements on the basis of morality and scripture. "If ten percent is enough for God, it is enough for Bank of America," notes Bishop C. Joseph Sprague from Columbus, Ohio, a leader with the IAF. This fundamental moral question is at the heart of the economic calamity we are now enduring: is there any amount of profit that is too much? Any level of exploitation that we will not tolerate?

We have been the victims of market fundamentalist ideology for so long, that we've forgotten that the ability to charge unlimited interest is a relatively recent phenomenon, not natural and not inevitable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak..._b_242575.html

[JennyD]

Re: Reinstate usury laws?! False Christians will stop at nothing

Yeah, those commies think that people who are responsible and pay their bills on time (so they have good credit) should have to pay higher interest rates to make up for the high credit risk of people who don't pay on time!

It's all about making everyone equal. Everybody should have to pay the same interest rates as the people who prefer to snort their bill payments each month instead of living up to their obligations. There should be no reward of any sort for being responsible; instead, the responsible people should have to bear the burden of the irresponsible.

This is called "being progressive".

[Larry Lee]

Re: Reinstate usury laws?! False Christians will stop at nothing

Yeah, those commies think that people who are responsible and pay their bills on time (so they have good credit) should have to pay higher interest rates to make up for the high credit risk of people who don't pay on time!

It's all about making everyone equal. Everybody should have to pay the same interest rates as the people who prefer to snort their bill payments each month instead of living up to their obligations. There should be no reward of any sort for being responsible; instead, the responsible people should have to bear the burden of the irresponsible.

This is called "being progressive".

Sister Jenny, your woman's brain has clearly benefited from your years of pie making. Your outstanding ability to understand True Christian™ principles of economics and public policy just goes to show that even a woman can understand the meat of God's Will, when she assumes a properly contrite and servile attitude.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Reinstate usury laws?! False Christians will stop at nothing

The Lord speaks with great wisdom on the subject:

Ex:22:25: If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
[…]
De:23:20: Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

High interest rates are Godly as long as the borrower is not a True Christian™ - if he is Unsaved Trash, the sky’s the limit.

Some may say that this might seem unfair. I say, no poor people really need to borrow, they need to limit their insatiable desire for worldly goods.

On the other hand, if you have money, you require a good return:

M't:25:27: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

Thus the more prudent amongst us, need a supply of usury so as to allow our money to work for us instead of having to soil our hands with the deeds that the poor do so much better.

I am always sorry for those whose savings do not allow them to live on the interest on the interest, thus having to dip into their capital.