According to the Book of Proverbs, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." As it was three thousand years ago, so it is today.

Proverbs 22:2, 7, 9 and 16:

Rich and poor have this in common:
   The Lord is the Maker of them all.
The rich rule over the poor,
   and the borrower is slave to the lender.
The generous will themselves be blessed,
   for they share their food with the poor.
One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
   and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

1. Proverbs 22:7 speaks of the profound effect debtor and creditor status has on personal relations.

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street

Even in the United States -- which is deeply committed to the myth of individual freedom and equality -- economic status greatly determines one's freedom and class and the degree to which equality under law is actually available. The proverb makes no moral pronouncements; it simply observes a fact of life. Yet, Israel's law consistently forbade lenders from taking interest from the poor.  By implication, 22:7 in its biblical context sharply condemns one of today's common banking practices. When banks charge usurious interest rates on their freely offered credit cards -- while knowing that generally the financially vulnerable are driven to amass credit-card debt -- they offend the God who cares for the poor.


The National Debt Clock

Perhaps this proverb applies also to international relations, a possibility that time will answer for America. In the 1980s, the United States went from being the world's largest creditor nation to being the largest debtor nation. Wealthy America may become a "servant" to its international creditors, its freedom to act in international affairs compromised by its financial obligations. This issue is of even greater moment for poor, developing nations with large foreign debts. Often cash crops for export (coffee, cocoa, opium poppies, and the coca leaf used to make cocaine) are grown instead of foodstuffs desperately needed by the native population. The Lord of the nations also judges nations that exploit those weaker than themselves.

2. Wealth gained by wronging, oppressing, or taking advantage of the poor stands under God's condemnation.

The 2013 Savar building collapse in Bangladesh resulted in a death toll of 1,129.
The building housed garment factories that manufactured apparel for Western stores.

In ancient Israel, this happened when the wealthy bought up -- and kept -- the land of the destitute, so depriving them of their heritage in the land of promise.   But Proverbs also condemns giving to the rich (22:16). On planet Earth, where resources are limited, the excessive increase of goods for some means loss for many others, both domestically and internationally. This happens when damage to human beings and to the environment results from the manufacture and use of earth-destructive technological products. It happens when executives are paid exorbitant sums as their companies downsize, merge through debt-increasing buyouts, and overwork their remaining employees. It happens when jobs are hipped to sweatshops hidden in inner cities or overseas. It happens when a country's tax code and other laws promote a massive shift of wealth from ordinary people to the nation's richest inhabitants. We expand our little kingdoms at the expense of our neighbors and at the expense of the natural kingdoms -- plant, animal, and mineral. Thus we disrupt the righteous order of God's kingdom's coming on earth (Matt 6:10). This we do to our own peril. In the long run, such activities lead to the opposite of what they are intended to do, to loss instead of to gain.

Source: Van Leeuwen, Raymond.  “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264.  (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), pages 199-200.