Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 183
Economic Peace 183 pledges. Such societies give an unrealistic boost to production to meet consumer demand. This evil aspect of interest-run economies has to be further elaborated and illustrated. In a society where keeping up with the Joneses becomes an obsession, the obsession is largely abetted by advertisements of the latest models of this and that. An introduction is provided to the general public of the luxurious lifestyle of the rich by displaying the latest design of sofas, luxurious chalets fitted with the most modern kitchen and bathroom appliances and gadgets. People with less means available to buy all that they want are willy- nilly turned to false plastic money to fulfil their desires. Obviously, this means that they buy far more than their earnings. If this money was to be repaid even without interest, it would be tantamount to increasing one’s buying capacity at present at the cost of lowering the same in the future. If a man earns $1,000 per month and goes shopping for expensive articles with the help of borrowed money, say, to the tune of $40,000, his ability to repay will be determined by his net savings per month. Let us suppose that he can barely make the ends meet at $600. This will leave him with net savings of $400 per month. He will have to live within that tight budget for the next 100 months to repay the loan arising from his spending spree of $40,000 without interest. What he has, therefore, done is to borrow money from his future 100 months (i. e. , 8 years and 4 months) to spend at the beginning of this period. The only advantage he has gained is to satiate his impatience and fulfil his desire instead of waiting for the next eight years or so. But if he has also to pay interest on his $40,000 borrowing, his financial position will be far worse than the one discussed in the