ON USURY: VIOLATIONS OF RECIPROCITY When moral interest violates natural law of

ON USURY: VIOLATIONS OF RECIPROCITY

When moral interest violates natural law of reciprocity:

1 – natural law requires reciprocity

2 – natural law requires that neither borrower or lender may externalize costs (to the transaction).

3 – the individual with asymmetric power is the lender, and bears equal responsibility in selecting opportunities for interest as does the borrower bear responsibility for repaying the loan.

4 – There is no difference in fault between selecting an incapable borrower, and borrowing an amount one is incapable of paying. This violates reciprocity.

5 – The limit of restitution is determined by the amount of the original loan, minus the payments against it, else cost are externalized beyond the transaction.

6 – Once in default, the contract is broken, and we have evidence of both the failure of borrower and lender to conduct due diligence, and therefore

7 – the lender is never due interest (reward) for bad lending, any more than the borrower is due returns for the use of what he borrowed to use in production. So in the case of the original amount, we are referring to the amount not the amount plus interest.

8 – for this reason my understanding is that principle should be paid off first, and interest following, in all honest transactions. And statements otherwise exist entirely to obtain unearned profits.

I could write about this all day long but I have other things to do…. reciprocity means borrower and lender bear equal responsibility, else we empower lenders to search out the incompetent in order to obtain through defaults that which they could not obtain through the selection of productive opportunities that cause no negative externality.