# Id much rather lend money to a Jew than a Gypsy **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664 "2010-08-27T13:46:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/21 "2010-08-27T16:49:57Z")
Change your lending criteria. If I lend money, it’s to someone I trust to pay it back. I don’t care if it’s a neanderthal looking for some help, so long as I get my money back. That said, most of the time I consider it a hand-out rather than a loan and half no expectations of getting the money back. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/22 "2010-08-27T16:51:34Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > guess I am a bigot then, > > This is ment more as a thought experiment. Let say you have to make a hypothetical choice. Either you lend 100 dollars to 100 randomly selected jews or you lend it to random gypsies. You ask them to come back with the bill the next day. They have to give it back but get to keep 50 as a reward > > Of course you could also do this as a field experiment. > > What side would get the most money returned? > > I think I know the answer, these specific groups you could of course change to any cultural/ethnic/labour/ etc etc > > Then my next point is, would this prove anything if there is a big difference in money returned? could such an experiment be done? Does it have any value? > > This would be a very crude tool to falsify stereotypes. Or might show that you can discern patterns in behavior when you put a collective against another. You seem to be fishing for others who share your views. Answering a question like this, even in the hypothetical, is tantamount to exposing oneself as a bigot, even if that is not the intention. It’s a stupid question from someone who has apparently taken one too many shots to the head. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/23 "2010-08-27T16:56:39Z")
I hear Stormfront is full of useful advice for lenders. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/24 "2010-08-27T16:58:54Z")
Where the heck is the OP from? As a Southerner, none of this is comprehensible to me at all. It’s like he’s asking “Would you rather lend money to a Lapp or a Hmong?” It’s a racial Mad Lib! ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/25 "2010-08-27T17:31:27Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > This OP sounds like it came out of a time capsule. “Who would thee rather do Business with, a Negroe or a Heathen Chinee?” > > Here’s a tip: when the only identifying characteristic you supply about someone when asking a question of character is their race or religion, it’s pretty tough not to sound bigoted. Well.. I could sell the Negro if he refused to pay me back and see a tidy profit, assuming he doesn’t have the malarial ague as is common in that breed. With the Chinaman I have no recourse other than a sound thrashing and lopping off his pigtail. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/26 "2010-08-27T17:40:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > > [@scamartistry](#): > > > > Does this make me racist? What would you do if you would have to choose one of the above? > > > > Obviously I am very prejudiced when it comes to Romans… > > What if they wanted you to lend them your ears? > > Regards, > Shodan Somebody’s gotta do it…Ba-Dum-BOOM! Thank you, and try the veal… And on a serious note…some of you say you’d rather lend money to someone you know, but I’m of the opinion that that can cloud your judgement sometimes. It’s better to only loan money to someone who is credit-worthy. Of course, folks you know may be entirely credit-worthy, but not always, of course. [/Obvious Man] ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/27 "2010-08-27T17:56:39Z")
Isn’t it usually the Jews doing the moneylending? _d&r_ ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/28 "2010-08-27T18:08:24Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > This is ment more as a thought experiment. It helps the experiment if the thoughts aren’t retarded. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/29 "2010-08-27T18:35:15Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > [@scamartistry](#): > > > > guess I am a bigot then, > > > > This is ment more as a thought experiment. > > It’s the worst thought experiment ever. “Is it racist if I’d rather give money to a black guy than a white guy?” Yeah, you’re a bigot. Have fun with that. Yeah, well, a thought experiment is limited by the capabilities of the thinker. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/30 "2010-08-27T18:51:44Z")
How many Roma and Jews are asking you to lend them money? Really so many that you have to do this kind of thought experiment? Also, talk about some backhanded anti-semitism. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/31 "2010-08-27T20:01:13Z")
June 2010. I would have guessed August 2010. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/32 "2010-08-27T20:17:36Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Since neither “Jewish” nor “Roma” is a race, your statement is not racist. Who says? Race is in the eye of the beholder; it’s a sociological distinction, not a biological one. If Group A thinks the Roma are an ethnically distinct group, and treats them poorly as a result, then within that context the Roma are a race, and the behaviour is racist. You don’t think the Hutu and Tutsi thought of each other as different races? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/33 "2010-08-27T20:20:10Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > June 2010. I would have guessed August 2010. No, the OP’s been starting these kinds of threads for a while. I’m surprised you didn’t notice them. Usually they were about why Africa is “backward”. > [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Since neither “Jewish” nor “Roma” is a race, your statement is not racist. It is, however, bigoted. This, though, I do not understand. What is a “race”, after all? To me, “racist” is an accurate term for someone who makes assumptions about a person based mostly on that person’s ethnic or national identification. “Race”, after all, is an old-fashioned term for ethnicity or nationality. ETA: Oh, and some of the posts in this thread have been cracking me up. Congratulations especially to **silenus** , **Shodan** , **Giraffe** and **Ogre**! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/34 "2010-08-27T20:25:19Z")
Did no one else note the irony of the username/post combo in the OP? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/35 "2010-08-27T20:41:08Z")
As a Jew, I’d prefer that you lend money to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/36 "2010-08-27T20:46:22Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > > [@Hello\_Again](#): > > > > Since neither “Jewish” nor “Roma” is a race, your statement is not racist. > > Who says? > > Race is in the eye of the beholder; it’s a sociological distinction, not a biological one. If Group A thinks the Roma are an ethnically distinct group, and treats them poorly as a result, then within that context the Roma are a race, and the behaviour is racist. > > You don’t think the Hutu and Tutsi thought of each other as different races? Race is a cultural term, not a biologcal term, so, perhaps I spoke too strongly, but it is not true that “ethnicity” and “race” are synonymous terms. “Korean” is not generally considered a race, but “Asian” generally is. “Asian” as a race encompasses several different ethnicities that historically enjoyed conquering each other. In the 1700s “races” as we currently describe them were formalized, primarily on the basis of things like skin color, hair color and texture, and facial characteristics, NOT on the basis of culture. Carolus Linnaeus, that great categorizer, described the 4 races as “White European, Red American, Dark Asiatic and Black Negro” in 1735 **Typically** “Jewish” is not considered a race, as far as anyone considers the race of a Jew it is tied to whatever their underlying race is (ie, Jews from Sweden are White, Jews from Ethiopia are Black), but most American Jews are descendents of Europeans and thus “White,” while the race of Jews worldwide varies. I don’t know that much about the Roma in terms of their origins or the history of how they are considered as a racial group, so I couldn’t say there. But I suppose you are right, if the OP considers Jewish a race, then he is a racist. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/37 "2010-08-27T21:24:27Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > As a Jew, I’d prefer that you lend money to me. Hey, OP, can I borrow some money? -Alice The Goonstein ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/38 "2010-08-27T21:47:15Z")
In my experience, most Roma are very, very poor, and have few economic options. There are mahalas with unemployment rates of 100%. Jews, also in my experience, tend to be better off. I mean, I’m a Jew and I’m broke as fuck right now, but in general, most Jews are better off than most Roma. So if I were making a choice based purely on economics and the likelihood of getting my money back, and could loan it to one of two people, one Roma and one Jew, I’d loan it to the Jew. If I were making my decision based on altruism, I’d probably lend it to the Rom. Jews generally have more economic opportunities. Being a Jew doesn’t really hold me back. OTOH, if I were Roma, people would be stereotyping me all day long as a dirty gypsy. (You guys. You would not believe the things people said to me about Roma when I lived in Eastern Europe. In America, I don’t associate with people who say racist things, but if I did that in Bulgaria, I wouldn’t have had anyone to hang out with anymore. It was exhausting.) **ETA:** btw, the Roma are descended from migrants from India. They very much resemble Indians. I knew one Indian-American Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria; she quit shortly into it. I knew a few Latino volunteers that also got a LOT of shit from people who assumed they were gypsies. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/39 "2010-08-28T00:25:07Z")
The Gypsy, of course! What’s the Jew gonna do to me? He’s already using me in his warfare against God-Fearin’ Christian White Americans. He needs me, the ignorant bestial negro, to do all the killing for him. You know, for the inevitable race war. The Gypsy will put some spell on me or something if I don’t give him some money. I don’t care about getting the money back or not; I just don’t want to turn out like that guy in _Thinner_. That was messed up. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664/40 "2010-08-28T00:49:02Z")
**scamartistry** - If you’re using ethnicity as your criteria for lending money, I’ve got the perfect list of borrowers for you: [Eliyahu Weinstein](http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-26/weinstein-gets-bail-in-200-million-ponzi-scheme.html) [Lou Pearlman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Pearlman) [Bernie Madoff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff) [Tzvi Erez](http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/news/another-north-american-jewish-community-rocked-by-ponzi-scheme-1.1930) Not to suggest that Jews are any less trustworthy than other borrowers, just that ethnicity is a very poor substitute for due diligence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-much-rather-lend-money-to-a-jew-than-a-gypsy/551664.md?page=3)