> If someone's starving, I'll just gift them the money/food they need. I'm not going to set the expectation that they must return it to me. If I need to lie about the nature of the gift to ensure they'll accept it, so be it, but a gift's a gift, not a loan.

Some people would refuse that out of pride, so you might as well spare their honor and lend it to them in some cases, but yeah sure.

> On the other hand, if I'm loaning someone money, it's almost certainly related to some commercial venture, and I reasonably expect to be paid for the risk I'm taking with that person.

Wouldn't a more appropriate instrument for investing in a commercial venture be to buy shares in their company?