The fact that default risk and time value of money exist are immutable, irrespective of whether you think that's evil. Modern Islamic banks in Sharia jurisdictions still recoup that risk and time value through various means, irrespective of whether you call that interest. (Some forms of "Islamic mortgages" charge you "rent" based on LIBOR/SOFR, which is just interest with extra steps.)

Christianity also used to have many restrictions on charging interest, but that got lost somewhere around the 19th century.

It is where the whole "Jews are greedy bankers" stereotype comes from: during the Middle Ages Jews were allowed to charge interest to non-Jews, so they were essentially the only people who could act as bankers for Christians. Combine that with a large dose of racism keeping them out of a lot of other jobs, and you end up with a lot of Jewish bankers.

This seems good in theory but hard in reality. The modern economy is built on debt being used for new investments. The problem is high interest rates, not interest rates in general.

Debt is being used for new investment? That can’t be right - it’s gotta be some form of credit, right? Maybe I’m mistaken.

Of course, it’s credit. The word “new” is redundant.

Something never asked is whether what the modern economy is built on makes sense for longer than a couple hundred years. It seems premature to assume that the modern economy is sustainable ad infinitum.

Abrahamic religions in general - Jesus was also not a fan.

>Jesus went into the temple courtyard and threw out everyone who was buying and selling there. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold pigeons. He told them, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you’re turning it into a gathering place for thieves!”

- Matthew 21:12-13

>If you lend money to my people—to any poor person among you—never act like a moneylender. Charge no interest.

- Exodus 22:25

KJV used the word "usurer", but it's the same idea.

Serious question: what would incentive anyone to lend to people who have any risk at all (i.e. everyone)?

One of the major problems with interest is it compounds in bad times. Someone gets laid off for 6 months and suddenly owes more money, this is especially problematic if someone gets injured and can no longer make the same income etc.

Fees are one option. If you agree to a 2 year loan of 100$ as long as they pay you back 110$ that’s acceptable, the difference being if it takes them 3 years you still only get 110$. Obviously this runs into problems with inflation, but it’s one socially “fair” way to handle loans between friends and family.

The same incentive you'd have to do something for someone without receiving payment - a desire to help. I'd imagine the fact that people in that time had stronger familial ties to others in their village also helped increase payback rates.

And both religious created a way to indirectly pay interest by turning it into a business partnership.

i.e. when you are helping someone (a friend, relative) you don't pay interest. But when it's a business loaning the money that desire to help doesn't exist, and it becomes a business partnership instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loans_and_interest_in_Judaism specifically: "Heter iska". And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murabaha for Muslims (I think there are other forms as well). A copy of a Heter Iska: http://www.jlaw.com/Forms/iska_d.html

You're supposed to use Mudarabah[0] preferentially, which is dramatically less of a lazy hack around usury rules than Murabaha. (Also as a English speaker, those words are very hard to distinguish.)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_and_loss_sharing

Assuming such a rule would mean "all mandatory fees are prohibited" and that we're talking about profit driven ventures (not cooperatives or patrons that might have other reasons to want to lend money than monetary profits), you can be creative and charge money in ways that technically doesn't count as interest.

The Medici bank gained lots of their money from foreign exchange speculation issuing a sort of option for buying foreign currencies at a specific date (this would probably be a lot harder to do today), you could also charge late fees with the social understanding that paying a loan back on time is really bad for your credit score. I guess a modern conglomerate might make money by putting certain terms in effect: You want to build a house but need some money to do so? I will lend you the money if you contract my contractors to build your house. A university could lend you the money but keep charging extortionate tuitions as long as the cost for the education service is unregulated.

Well if you're a credit union that operates in Shithole Town, USA... then in theory if you lend money to people who improve the community, you'll reap the benefits everyone else does by living in a more desirable place (more valuable property, more customers for businesses, etc).

Almost impossible to imagine given the current state of the economy where every possible thing you can imagine has been commodified.