interest free money

[matrix]

I found another interesting webpage on my travels today...

linky

Both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were assassinated while they held the high office of President of the United States. Both of these former presidents had also created their own money system to run the United States while they were in office is this just a coincidence?


What really would be so bad about abolishing lending and creating "interest free money"

No more loans - no more interest rates - if you can't afford it, you can't have it, end of argument.

If you want something so badly - you have to work for it, banks are still permitted to lend money to people if they choose to - but are forbidden by law to charge interest or make any money whatsoever from the act of lending money.

No more fractional reserve banking - no more debt.

Sounds like paradise to me. Of course it'll put a few bankers out of business, but [censored] 'em.

[haarley]

You already have the choice to not pay interest.

[TaintedRogue]

What's more interesting:

1. Lincoln's personal secretary was named Kennedy and Kennedy's was named Lincoln.

2. Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theatre and Kennedy was killed while riding in a Lincoln.

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
No more loans - no more interest rates - if you can't afford it, you can't have it, end of argument.


[/ QUOTE ]

What about educational loans?

I haven't read the article so maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but I don't see how you can argue that a system where students can't take out loans for college is a good thing. Our entire system is theoretically supposed to be a meritocracy, where the cream can rise to the top. If brilliant students can't go to college because they're too poor, it hurts us all and stagnates our country in the sciences, arts, mathematics, engineering, you name it.

[tolbiny]

Education? What about a mortgage? 20 years of saving before you can buy a house at least? How's that going to work?

[matrix]

OK - the government prints this "interest free money" and is required to loan it to individuals -interest free- for important things like college educations and mortgages. Everyone has a right to a college education if they want one and the Govt of the day has an obligation to offer an interest free Student loan to anyone who applies - likewise everyone has the right to own their house and the Government also is obligated to provide interest free mortgages to everyone provided they meet certain conditions.

If they choose to banks are also permitted to make loans to people as long as they don't charge interest. A bank needs to offer some incentive to it's customers for them to keep money on deposit with them in savings accounts (the bank can't pay you interest on your savings anymore - there is no interest - so offering loans might be one way to attract customers along with the convenience of paying by plastic, provided your account has enough money to cover the amount you are spending.)

Both Kennedy and Lincoln thought this system would work enough to actually spend money printing notes - both were assassinated - both these decisions were immediately reversed by their successors - coincidence?

Would it really be such a terrible world if lending was more or less abolished and noone could get into debt?

[tomdemaine]

Read up on comsumption smoothing.

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
Would it really be such a terrible world if lending was more or less abolished and noone could get into debt?

[/ QUOTE ]

It wouldn't work, and wouldn't be enforceable. There will always be lending and debt, this would just force it under the table and into organized crime, much like banning alcohol in the early 20th caused this.

[Copernicus]

trolls die if you dont feed them with responses

[matrix]

from the same article I linked to earlier...

"if that mischievous financial policy, which had its origin in the North American Republic, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without a debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed, or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." - as printed in the Times of London shortly after Lincoln started issuing Greenbacks...

That sounds to me like the system would have worked exceptionally well and the bankers in England were extremely scared of such a system.

Even if this forced lending into the waiting arms of organised crime only a few thousand people would be in debt instead of millions - countries wouldn't be indebted to the level they are now (there would be no national deficits) no third world debt - poor countries wouldn't be forced to pay back interest on loans and "aid" and could spend the money they raise on healthcare and education instead of helping make the fatcat banks even more money while their citizens starve or die from easily treatable diseases.

I'm really not seeing a lot of downsides here. I think Lincoln and JFK were on to something...