by Pine_Tree » October 25th, 2006, 2:33 pm
I'll try to clarify the distinction.
First, I agree with your Aquinian analogy. Renting an asset is different from charging interest on loaned money.
Second, I agree that it's hard to land on a solidly usable definition of usury. Is it any interest? Only exploitative interest? Only interest when the lender sets the rate (as opposed to the incidental and borrower-defined rate for something like an interest-bearing checking account)? Not clear.
Third, I think you're missing my point about ownership. When I say that Coyote is making an ownership-based investment, I mean that you're using your own money to purchase something -- not getting a loan to make that purchase.
Some quickie definitions and examples:
Borrowing: Taking a loan of money, usually with a promise to pay interest. Maybe it's a loan for a vehicle, or a mortgage, or an operating loan for a business. None of this is prohibited by Scripture, but all of them are unwise, are strongly warned against (see concerns about surety in Proverbs), and should be avoided at virtually all cost.
Usury: Loaning money at interest -- see my second paragraph for discussion of fuzziness.
Ownership-based Investment: Using your own money to purchase assets or goods for the purpose of wealth creation. Some examples might be:
- Coyote has some money and would like to be productive with it. Coyote buys a lathe or a printing press or a tractor and uses it to produce things that other people want to pay for.
- Coyote has some money and would like to be productive with it. Coyote buys some goods, goes to a place where those goods are desired but not available, and sells them.
- Coyote has some money and would like to be productive with it, but Coyote is so actively busy with other things as to have no incremental time or talents to combine with this money. So Coyote finds another business that is being productive and buys part of it (a share). When that business creates wealth (cash or intrinsic value), Coyote owns part of it. If things go badly, then just like in the lathe or goods examples, Coyote stands a chance of losing some or all of it.
Now, it's of course quite possible and very, very common to make investments with borrowed money, but then in the big picture you don't really own it.
That's what I mean. To be ownership-based, I mean that for your particular transaction, lending and loans and things are out of it entirely.
Pine