Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1919. AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2049, 1 November 1919, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1919. AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM.

A "WRITER in a contemporary digs into the interest custom. He contends (hat all those old civilisations that went down through the custom of paying interest were always overthrown by people who did not. practice it. For instance, the Roman Empire was overthrown by the old Germanic tribes, who had never even heard of the custom. He (hen gives instances of how the custom works. The sum of £5, lent at 5 per cent, compound interest in the lime of Robert Brace (GOO years ago) would to-day have reached a sum equal to 309 limes the entire prewar wealth of the United Kingdom. To show how mere saving stands alongside this little interest imp, he takes Alcthusolah, the longest-lived man lie ever heard of. “I will suppose ho earned £1 a day all the days of his life, and saved it all —that is ■giving, the saving theory, every chance —the sum total for his 9G9 years is £353,085. Not hud, you may say, Iml sec what a half-crown can do at interest, alongside of a man. The 2s Od placed at interest at 5 per cent, compound at birth would at the time of his death, 909 years, have reached this enormous and incredible total —£252,160,800,185,500,000,000. The entire wealth of the world could not have paid this debt. You must admit there is something truly devilish and uncanny about a custom that can show such results, and this devilish custom was never busier than it is today. . Now it's not working on halfcrowns or five pounds, but on tens of thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands of millions, compounding and doubling every fourteen years. What cap be the only result?”