Aspies For Freedom

Many years ago when I hadn't any savings I happened upon the idea that "interest is theft", in the meaning that "money just sitting in a bank account shouldn't accumulate more money". I took that idea to my heart and I've since then managed to save up quite a lot of money but I've never struggled to put it in high interest accounts or anywhere were it could generate more money than the general salary account that I have. It has always been very low; 1% or less.

Real freedom is only possible in a world that is totally free of money. I've written stuff on this but I don't know where those notes are right now. Well, anyway... What do you think of this idea?

I think that's a ridculous idea. Money just laying around actually decreases in value because of inflation. Banks pay interest but ususally the rate is less than the inflation rate so your money would still be losing value. The best thing to do is invest it in a mutual fund, bonds or some other annuity.

I heard an economist say once that if the U.S. buys things from China with U.S. dollars and then China never buys anything from the U.S. with the dollars we gave them - it would be like getting what we bought for free.

Oh holy ***, somebody who's actually on my wavelength.

What about all the fees and charges banks have that rip people off, particularly those with small accounts? I consider that kind of thing to be legalised theft.

Actually the nature of money IS DEBT when you can't earn enough in profit, income or interest to cover your lifetime living expenses.

Without a person independently controlling their own production of food, shelter, energy, housing, money is indentured servitude to the higher ups.

Well, not so exactly true.  Where I live, ordinary people can not afford to buy a house or property with cash.  But Muslims are not supposed to have a mortgage with a bank right?  They are supposed to save money to go on their pilgrimage to Mecca.  They have special bank accounts that do not earn interest.  For the mortgage, there are special coop banks that do not have mortgages -- they say that the coop is buying the house and they are paying rent.  After a certain amount of time of paying rent, the renter is given title and owns the house.  There are administrative fees instead of interest.  Mosques and schools have the problem of not being able to use regular banks and that is why they depend on donations from rich Saudis who then just hold too much influence over everyone.  

Christians had Martin Luther to thank for putting an end to paying corrupt church officials for everything little sin.  

I do think however, that the government should take more responsibility in providing or making sure that affordable housing is available to people who need it.  Also people should not have to get into massive amounts of debt in order to get an education or medical treatments.

Have you people not heard of Islamic Banking?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking

That's how they do it ;p

But they ALL do it! They make such high profits otherwise, there is no need for it and I think the government should ban them from charging all but stamp duty (which is a government charge anyway).

I would never in my lifetime save enough money to buy a house without taking out a loan.  So what are the options?  In rental accomodation I can't put up a hook to hang a painting or even grow a flower without permission, and a stranger can demand to inspect my home whenever they like as long as they fill out a form first, and kick me out when it suits them.  And it would cost me just as much as paying off my own little home.  Instead of that money going towards MY investment, it's going towards someone else's.

I've recently bought a house (go me!!!!) so I have a ginormous morgage and yeah, assuming I don't win a lottery I'm a wage slave for the rest of my life.  BUT that house was a good investment - I've had work done, so it's worth more than I paid for it.  If something goes horribly wrong with my finances, I can sell it and I'd probably make a profit.  If that's slavery, it's OK by me.

But they have the access to our money to invest it in the short term money market and make a lot of profit. I can see the logic behind charging for a new bankbook or cheque book but not a fee for keeping small balance accounts going when it costs them nothing to just have those accounts sit there.

What I find bad is the idea of a bank taking my money, investing it and not sharing in any of the returns with my money. Some accounts don't share in the returns, and personally I avoid them since it's a good idea to accumulate interest.

Why should a bank not be allowed to pay out to it's customers a portion of the profit they generate from investment of their customer's cash?

Yes, I think that capitalism is theft.

Why not invest your money in a small local credit union. If you want to borrow they cannot charge YOU more than 1% per month by law, and by investing your money you are helping other people near you get a better rate of interest.

The credit union is usually ran as a co-op of sorts and you can choose how your money is invested, if at all.

Yes it does, and i'm glad it does. I was referring to the idea that they should not do this.

Again, I know that they do - but some people would call this immoral for some reason. In a similar fashion, my bank charges fees for certain services rather than giving them away for free as so many would want to force them to do.

How do these people expect banks to turn into charities and merely hold money without being able to profit or cover their costs?

I believe that the Financial Service Authority in the UK disallows this.