Village Idiot20 hours ago
Terry, concerning your bank loan/friend loan analogy both are moral responsibilities but you have the addition, with the bank loan, of a legal responsibility. The legal responsibility is how the state enforces and regulates what is at heart a moral responsibility.
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There is a loan industry which preys upon low, fixed income people who need cash between paydays. The interest rates are sky-high.
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There is a loan industry which preys upon low, fixed income people who need cash between paydays. The interest rates are sky-high.
Part of the success of this fast-cash loanshark strategy is the postponement of the payback date built-in as a 'friendly' cushion. This delay, of course, increases the amount of payback.
A very close friend of mine is hooked in and cannot escape. He borrows and owes over and over again. His checks regularly bounce. Last month there were 25 bounced check fees collected by his bank and each of the Loan companies.
Counter-intuitively, daily he receives e-mail offers of yet larger loans available NOW. You see, all these lenders want to do is open up a wound large enough for them to lay their maggoty eggs inside.
I said all of that to say this. I don't think morality has anything at all to do with lending money or paying it back. It has more to do with strategies, tactics, and human weakness.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Nature itself is based upon exploitation of resources. Only in the mind of certain individual humans does any sense of morality exist. For each of us, the extent of that ethical territory varies.
Laws pertaining to lending and interest are obviously contrived to allow victims to get in as deep as they are willing to go. Beyond that, the collection and write-off mechanism defaults into yet another circle of Hell.
A very close friend of mine is hooked in and cannot escape. He borrows and owes over and over again. His checks regularly bounce. Last month there were 25 bounced check fees collected by his bank and each of the Loan companies.
Counter-intuitively, daily he receives e-mail offers of yet larger loans available NOW. You see, all these lenders want to do is open up a wound large enough for them to lay their maggoty eggs inside.
I said all of that to say this. I don't think morality has anything at all to do with lending money or paying it back. It has more to do with strategies, tactics, and human weakness.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Nature itself is based upon exploitation of resources. Only in the mind of certain individual humans does any sense of morality exist. For each of us, the extent of that ethical territory varies.
Laws pertaining to lending and interest are obviously contrived to allow victims to get in as deep as they are willing to go. Beyond that, the collection and write-off mechanism defaults into yet another circle of Hell.