Forum Post: The collapse of civilisation by usury

Civilisation collapses when too many people have become dependent on it. The natural condition for humans is to live and work in small groups that are largely self sufficient. The most important cause of people becoming dependent on the system is usury. Usury forces people into debt slavery [ http://www.naturalmoney.org/full-theory.html#dyay ] and usury favours large scale operations [ http://www.naturalmoney.org/full-theory.html#usec ].

Because of the usury economic cycle markets will correct in a rude way with businesses going bankrupt, economic recessions and depressions. In this process much useful capital is destroyed which could be productive if there was demand. The destruction of capital also results in a destruction of wealth. Since we live a democratic society this will not be accepted and such issues will automatically lead to a strong call for government intervention and regulation [ http://www.naturalmoney.org/full-theory.html#pwfm ].

Government intervention can reduce the severity of economic recessions and economic depressions in the short term but create an ever bigger problem long term namely increasing debt on which interest must be paid. Another problem is that government intervention causes inefficient politically connected businesses to remain in operation. Goverment intervention is also a source of corruption. The invisible hand can regulate many economic affairs more efficiently than governments can [ http://www.naturalmoney.org/full-theory.html#pwgi ].

The expansion of government and the welfare state are consequences of failures in Capitalism caused by usury. The accumulation of capital in the hands of a few enhanced by usury and inheritance will cause the poor to become a majority. They will elect people that try to stop economic laws from functioning because those laws are considered to be unjust. Many poor will then become dependent on the government which will then cause civilisation to collapse. Averting such a disaster means that people should become more self sufficient and usury should be abolished.