this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
958 points (97.2% liked)
me_irl
6542 readers
455 users here now
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Money is power in a form transferable over time and space.
Long before capitalism, people considered money to be the root of all evil. Many religions have restrictions on what can be done with money, especially asking for interest.
Weird coming from a religion that said the root of all evil was also a fruit.
Restrictions on lending can be explained by the fact that when those rules were made, almost no one knew math much better than counting on their fingers.
Wow... Just wow. The lack of knowledge in that statement is breathtaking.
The metal traders and other businessmen in ancient Mesopotamia (2000+ years before your fruit) absolutely knew "math better than counting on their fingers".
Usury restrictions may have had a lot to do with the social cost of loans among tight knit groups (such as, don't loan money to your cousin, it'll cause problems) or because they were rejecting "normal" behavior from a society they wanted to distance themselves from.
Also, the fruit was an allegory, like most ancient mythical stories. Even if you reject mythology outright, try not to belittle the moral and traditional bases for religions that billions of people on Earth follow. You aren't better than them for it.