Letters to the Editor
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Rippping off the poor
As a landlord of poor people myself, I have been able to observe that there is a great deal of money to be made out of ripping off poor people, though I cannot say that any of it is coming my way. In fact, if my tenants cannot pay their rent on time, I am more likely to give them an extension than to drive them to the payday load sharks--though I cannot say the same for the electricity company.
You have the payday loan sharks, and then you have the income tax refund loan sharks. Because poor people aren't good at filling in forms, they often pay someone else to fill in a fairly simple form to claim an income tax refund and/or Earned Income Credit at the start of each year. During this process they are often aggrssively sold on the idea of an "instant refund", which is actually a very expensive loan, so that they can get their Earned Income Credit immediately and not wait a day or two. (Another tendency of the poor is a complete failure to delay gratification.)
These income tax refund companies are well known and are in some cases publicly quoted companies. I urge Salon readers not to use them.
Then you have the liquor stores located within walking distance of where poor people live, which make a fortune selling the beer that is the main nutritional support of poor people, and the cigarettes whose butts poor people use as a form of confetti around their homes.
I agree with the poster who says that Religious America Inc. has very little to say about this. As a lapsed Christian myself I feel very uncomfortable with the way the poor are farmed for profit.
American is supposed to be a democracy, yet we have two political parties. One represents big business, landowners, inherited wealth, and super-reactionary religious sects. The other stands for college educated professionals and homosexuals. No one much represents the poor, and in fact they may not even have transportation to the polling stations which are rarely as close to where they live as the pay day loan center or the liquor store.
Now wouldn't it be nice if someone asked the odd question on behalf of the poor at a presidential debate? Just for noblesse oblige, you understand.