THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

goods and services they represent within the communities that accept
them. These currencies can afford to be available in sufficiency, as
opposed to requiring artificial scarcity.
Interest
The last obvious characteristic common to all official national
currencies is interest. Here again, we believe that interest on money is
somehow intrinsic to the process, forgetting that for most of history
that was definitely not the case. In fact, all three 'religions of the Book'
(Judaism, Christianity and Islam) emphatically outlawed usury,
defined as any interest on money. Only religious leaders still remind
anyone of this rule today. It is sometimes forgotten that the Catholic
church, for instance, remained i in battle against the 'sin of usury'
until the 19th century.
The effect of interest
The full implications of applying interest on the loans creating money
are the least understood of the four characteristics. Nevertheless, the
effects of interest on society are pervasive and powerful. They
therefore warrant more detailed examination. The way interest is
built into the money system has three consequences. These are:
1. Interest indirectly encourages systematic competition among
the participants in the system.
2. 2 Interest continually fuels the need for endless economic
growth, even when actual standards of living remain stagnant.
3. Interest concentrates wealth by taxing the vast majority in
favor of a small minority. Each of these issues will be addressed
in turn.
Encouraging competition