If you though money lenders are a useful resource to only those individuals who are in dire need of money then think again. In fact, over the ages, money lenders have helped and supported industries, technology and all other aspects of business or any transactions that lads to profits.
They are the ones who took the risks and invested their excess capital in anything they thought would be profitable and help them make the most money. Therefore, money lenders of the ancient past as well as other financiers made the whole industrial landscape of today possible. This industrial landscape includes:
- Steel
- Railroads
- Automobiles
- Air travel
- Air conditioning and
- Medical devices.
All these life augmenting industries and all other businesses would not exist without the required capital which is more often than not provided by the money lenders. In addition to that, homeownership would not have been possible to all apart from the richest people, owning and travelling in a car would have been the unrealistic dream for many and gaining higher education would have been out of reach of the common people. In short, usury is the lifeblood of the industrial technological society.
When you know that this practice and the helpful practitioners have been condemned through ages, you will feel bad. You will feel that by condemning them, people actually condemned furthering and enhancing of man’s life on earth, given the enormous contribution of the money lenders towards the well-being of the humans.
Reasons for hostility
To understand the role of the money lenders towards the nation you will need to know their brief history. It is only then that you will have all your required answers to the questions like:
- Why they are so loathed through the ages
- Why are they continued to be mistreated and distrusted even today
- What is required to be done to replace this universal hostility towards these important benefactors of humanity with their due gratitude to show the moral respect?
As you look into the matter deeply, you will see that such resentment towards the money lenders usually stems from two major interrelated sources:
- On is the specific economic views and
- The other is the ethical views.
Economically if you analyze matters right from the very beginning of Western thought, you will see that money lending was never thought to be productive. It was believed that usury is taking of something in return by providing nothing as the money lenders charged interest on the amount they loan out and take back both from the borrowers after a certain fixed time frame.
On the other hand if matters are analyzed ethically, the practice of lending money was condemned as immoral, unjust, exploitative, selfish and very much against biblical laws.
Therefore, you can see that the history of usury is actually a history of wrong beliefs, confusions, evasions and discoveries when you consider both the economic as well as the moral status of this practice. That means, it is required to recognize money lending as both economically productive as well as ethically praiseworthy.
Nowadays, the concept has changed and money lending is considered as both practical and moral. You will find now that there are one too many money lenders available who are ready to loan you money on easy terms and for any purpose quickly. They can be a bank or any other financial institutions, a private money lending company such as https://www.libertylending.com/ or even an individual. This is in spite of the fact that there are still some pockets in the society that continues to condemn the money lenders as villains instead of them being heralded as the heroes that they in fact are.
Change in scenario
Money by itself was considered to be unproductive in the past and therefore lending money with an interest charged on it was condemned. Way back in the 300 B C it was condemned by Aristotle and even today it is considered to be unjust and unnatural by lots of people. They feel that money lending is not the natural way to use it no matter for what reason it is lent out. People believed that money cannot provide additional value.
According to this view, $100 will be always worth $100 now and even after a year to you or to anyone, at any time, and for any purpose. it is believed that when a money lender loans a certain sum of money, it loses value for the money lender as the use is postponed or transferred to another person, the borrower.
However, over the years all these concepts changed and now it is believed that money can be productively invested in different economic and industrial activities and thereby create more wealth for the individual borrower as well as the nation on the whole.
In the olden times loans were disguised as money exchange due to the wide variety of currencies. This enabled merchants to trade even more and therefore money lending helped in the expansion of business and commerce.
Now, loans are given for any purpose and to anyone, whether it if for capital formation or personal wealth creation or for any other individual needs. This selective approach of the money lenders correlated with the economic times and helped it to do well in the past as well as in the present and in most cases prevented a possible economic downturn.
The modern market
In this modern market, money lending is the primary source to many people and is beneficial to both, the lender as well as the borrower. It is now well appreciated business and the money lenders are allowed and expected to charge interest on the amount loaned out.
This is because the modern word “interest” is derived from the Latin verb ‘Intereo’, which means “to be lost.” This interest is now considered as the compensation for the loss that a money lender incurs through lending money to others. In short, since it is just a reimbursement of the loss incurred or ‘damages’ and not a gain or a profit, it is no more considered as illegal.