Another Response to Interest Price Fixing

After this I shall resume posting on what I feel is "The Way It Should Be". As I review the input from various persons, who emailed me concerning price controls on the price of money, I begin to think some of you have the right idea. People are responsible for their own situations in most cases. Banks and credit card companies should be able to set their own interest rates. Retailers should be able to set their own prices on their products. So I put forth to you that it comes down to personal responsibility. This can be carried over to almost every facet of society. My original posting which brought on this controversy was over Bankruptcy. So let's look at this aspect. Should we be able to file bankruptcy at all? Why should we be able to erase our debts at all? In ancient days, if you were unable to pay your debts you were sold into slavery, and that could have included members of your immediate family as well. Should we bring back that practice? We can scoff at price controls all we want, but, when you come right down to it; there are a lot of things society has price controlled, body organs come to mind. What business of it is mine if you want to sell your spare kidney to the highest bidder? It's your kidney. Why not? If you die, why can't your family sell your heart, spleen, kidneys, lungs, or anything else for that matter? The Government has set down price controls on those items.... The government says they must be a gift, you are not allowed to sell them or have anyone bid on them in auction. Ticket scalpers, they are purchasing a product for resale, why then shouldn't they be able to sell those tickets for whatever price the market is willing to bear? When a hurricane hits a community or any other natural disaster, why can't people purchase water at a dollar a bottle and sell it at $10.00 or more? Plywood? Generators? The list goes on. When it comes to personal responsibility why stop at economics? Libertarians profess an attitude that they should be able to do anything they please as long as it doesn't interfere with (or could interfere with) the rights of others. So speeding would be illegal if you are endangering others. Driving drunk would be illegal since you are exposing others to a hazardous situation. Libertarians would also advocate the use of what are now illegal drugs, since you are only harming yourself and not others. Again it would boil down to personal freedom. If I want to charge you $20 for borrowing $5, as long as you don't have a problem with it, what does it matter? If you want to smoke dope in your own home, and as long as you keep it contained and not in your car going 120 mph stoned, what concern of it is mine? Now if we take on this attitude, what restrictions must we implement to keep us from destroying society? First of all, if you get all liquored up and ruin your liver, don't ask anyone to pay for its replacement, that should be you and your family responsibility (would the insurance company be able to place a clause in your insurance agreement stating that if you were responsible for your condition they would be exempt from paying out on your bills?. The Federal government already refuses to pay off a service member’s SGLI (Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance) if the service member dies in an accident where they are not wearing seat belts (or in the case of a motorcycle accident not wearing a helmet). So where does this all lead you may ask. My Blog is "The Way It Should Be” In a perfect world there would be no need to limit companies on how much interest they lend out, they would do the right thing. In a perfect world we would all adopt the proper attitude when it came down to how we conduct our business and our lives. There would be no loan sharks waiting for the easy mark, ready to break your legs when you don’t pay up. If we had no limits on interest and the deal was the open door, Loan Sharks would be upstanding citizens offering a commodity to those in need. Is Citibank a legal Loan Shark? That, without restrictions is able to raise your interest rates as long as they give you a 30 day notice? Don’t they metaphorically break your economic legs when you are behind? It is right to garnish your wages for a credit card debt, to ensure they get paid before your Mortgage Company, utility company, or grocer? You may think this treatise is socialistic, but I think it is more Conservative in nature. By allowing people to grow more economically on their own, you open up a real economy based on product and demand for that product. When people have more to spend, they spend it. If we reduce the amount they can spend on products, because they have to pay off interest on stuff they have already bought, then no amount of stimulus money will be able to correct a turn in the economy. Money is not a commodity; it is the means in which commodities are exchanged for labor. Interest cheapens the value of labor, by reducing what can be purchased with it. When you create more products, with a wider Marketplace, Society becomes stronger. Perhaps credit cards should be traded in for debit cards and products sold for their value. Would you spend $360,000 for a $125,000 house? People do that every day, and oh yes that price just up to $400,000 because you don’t have a good credit history. I am just saying that interest rates are too high and the people who can afford to pay them, don’t have to, where is the equality? Again in a perfect world we would not need to limit what we do, because we would just naturally do it.