Monday, July 12, 2010

The evil of payday loans

I well remember when payday loans became legal in Oklahoma and the offices of such organizations sprang up all over town like mushrooms. Take a look at this headline:

Meet the Man Who Made a Fortune Exploiting the Poor With Payday Loans

I really can't find an excerpt that will do this justice so do click through and read the whole article. Let me just say that I think these loans represent a great evil. Here's part of a comment that someone posted underneath the article itself:

Those who blame the victim should hope they never get in that position themselves. The assumption that people are to blame for getting into a position of requiring such a loan is the worst sort of hubris.

Those who still want to justify a system that allows such a phenomenon need to wake up.

Frankly, the ones who offend me the most of those who take on a paternalistic tone, who pretend to give a damn about people who are harmed by this crap and presume to give advice - as if that's the point here. It is not. The point is a system that even allows usury, a sin that most major religions consider one of the gravest.

What do people think Jesus was supposed to have been raving at in the temple of the moneychangers? It was usury, the concept that's at the heart of capitalism and is worshipped by our society.

I so, so agree.
~~~

4 comments:

  1. it's really interesting though, isn't it, how Allan Jones has himself convinced that he's not in it for the money and that he doesn't make that much.

    I totally agree that this is an evil.

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  2. And actually strictly speaking he didn't invent the industry if he nicked the idea.

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  3. (all of which goes to show how self-deluding those who fall in love with money ie all of us, given the circumstances, can all be, I guess)

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  4. It's shameful that our government allows any institution to charge such huge interest on loans. How is this any different than loan-sharking? Taking advantage of people's misfortune by bilking them of their hard-earned dollars is just kicking them when they're down. There should be a cap on the interest rates...

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