Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 166
166 islam’s response to contemporary issues central motive force for the amassing of capital, which is then channelled as energy to set and keep the assembly line of production in motion. In short, interest acts as an incentive for keeping capital in circulation. Scientific Socialism In scientific socialism, although there is no incentive of interest to cycle and recycle capital into a productive mechanism, the state monopolises capital. So, there is no need for motivation. In free private enterprise, whether one pays or does not have to pay interest, one’s sense of personal ownership is sufficient to create an urge that one’s capital should grow at the fastest possible rate. If one has to pay interest on borrowed money, the rate of interest acts as a benchmark. It works like a window through which one can monitor the comparative growth or diminution of capital. In the socialist economic system, however, there is neither this urge, because those who employ capital do not own it, nor is there any means of comparison whereby one can judge whether the rate of growth is economically sufficient or not. In socialist scientific order, the forcible possession of the entire state’s capital by the state itself renders the system of interest totally irrelevant and meaningless. The snag is that when you are not under any pressure to earn more than the interest you may have to pay, you lose all incentives and any sense of responsibility. If the entire capital in circulation in a communist state could, for instance, be valued from the point of view of how much interest it could earn had it been deposited in a bank, that would present us with