"Remember this, that you own not one thing in this world. Your wife is but a gift, your children are but loaned to you. All else you possess is given to you only while you use it wisely. Your body is not yours, for Nature claims it as her property."
Inspired not by the motive of helping others, but of realizing an interest on the dollar, loan agencies take advantage of the human frailty of unthriftiness, of the uncontrolled desire for things. Hence usury -- the pounds of flesh exacted in payment by the Shylocks of modern times. And banks and agencies have found by experience that people who begin the practice of borrowing are likely to remain regular customers. The habit once commenced has a tendency to repeat, so that some remain debtors for the balance of their lives.
Usury (in the original sense of any interest) was at times denounced by a number of religious leaders and philosophers in the ancient world, including Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Seneca[9], Plutarch,[citation needed] Aquinas[10], Muhammad[11], Moses,[citation needed] Philo[citation needed] and Gautama Buddha.[citation needed]
- Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
husbandry
The Treasury Department, as overseer of the financial system, has in recent weeks unleashed a vast array of initiatives in a bid to stave off catastrophe. It took over the country’s largest mortgage finance companies and put untold billions of taxpayer dollars on the line to prop up other lenders.
"Holy Bank Error in your favor, Mr. Monopoly!"
"Republicans think of themselves as manly folks who stand for defense and against taxation, but the truth is that Republicans are the party of spoiled brats. Like children, they want everything, but don't want to pay for anything."
"They wanted a war in Iraq, but they didn't want to pay for it, so they've borrowed from the Chinese to the tune of untold billions that someone else's kids are going to have to pay for, just as other people's kids mostly fight that war for them. And they wanted lots of overpriced no-bid contracts for some of the sleaziest companies imaginable, but they didn't want to pay for that, either. The money that's been enriching all those corporate cronies has also been put on the tab because tax relief to the richest 1 percent of those who least needed relief was much more important to Republicans than a pay-as-you-go plan for the lavish spending they were doing. They wanted unregulated banking and lending, a utopian environment for the greedy and the irresponsible, and they got it."
Don't worry about it, we can borrow mountains of money!
I find it interesting that the same zealots who want to bring democracy to the middle east, are borrowing money from the communist Chinese to do it!
The headline in the largest Brazilian newspaper this week was: "Capitalist Socialism??" I have to laugh when the right-wingnuts write in the forums, attacking educated opinions with the phrase, "If you don't like it here, why don't you move to China, you commie?" Why bother moving?
Bringing Democracy to Iraq with China's Money!
Not to worry.
Remember Ken Lay?
Does Enron ring a bell?
Guess who is vice president and treasurer of the World Bank?!
Meanwhile;
Remember Ike?
Oil slick surrounds pumpjack in High Island, Texas.
In the early 1950's, I used to go up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire with my family to visit relatives. I remember going to the beach in York, Maine. The beach houses were not much more than shacks with worn out furniture. I asked someone, why? They explained that storms would wash away the beach houses every few years, and that there wasn't much point in putting up anything nice.
York Beach, Maine
Modern Malibu beach house. $$$
Modern Galveston beach house, before Ike.
For the past 40 years, or more, people have not consulted history, or "old timers", but instead, just "willy-nilly", built expensive homes along Americas coasts. "It's O.K., we're insured, they will pay for the damage." OR, "We didn't think the storm would be that big!"
Where does the insurance company get it's money?
From everyone who buys insurance.
So, some potato farmer in Idaho is actually helping pay for the damage to that foolishly elaborate beach house.
Money doesn't come from companies, corporations, banks or governments...Money comes from people. Kids buying candy, mom's buying clothes and food. Money trickles up!
Money -Pink Floyd
Joy and Happiness are Free
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