Letters to the Editor
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Pat Robertson & Co. are right...
As this post describes, we have turned our backs on the Bible. You'll never hear it from the religious right, but in the Bible, in particular the Gospels, there are many more admonitions against cheating the poor than there are against illicit sexual behavior.
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No one had a problem with this when we called them
Pawnbrokers.
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OK, this is picky . . .
but please help me understand why law professor Christopher Peterson does not know that the correct word is "sleight," in "sleight of hand," and not "slight," as he has used in the title of his important paper. Is this an alternate use or form? Am I overlooking something?
I know, I know . . . picky, picky, picky. I'll go back to my corner with my little red pen now. (But, please, someone tell me that I'm not the only one who finds it disturbing when obviously intelligent and highly educated people misuse the English language in their formal published documents!)
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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.
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You make some excellent points, Amerigo
However, the inability to delay gratification is not limited to the poor people nowadays. At least they have a reason/excuse: the bills are coming due, the kids are hungry, etc. But it seems that middle-class and even rich people, in the last few decades, have also fallen into the "Do It Now and Hang The Consequences" trap. But instead of payday loans they use credit cards and equity mortgages as income supplements. What's their problem with maintaining a budget? Is it all their fault, or does the general state of the economy/society have a hand in this as well?
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Dear Anonymous
You too make some good points.
However no one in their right mind would take a pay day loan or an instant income tax refund, (nor does borrowing on credit cards make much sense unless you can pay it off in the short term), whereas using the capital in your home makes quite a bit of sense, and may even get you tax deductions. I recently refinanced my rental properties so as to get out some cash for upgrades, which in turn may increase the capital value of the property and enable me to borrow even more. This is capitalism at work.
Addictions to alcohol and cigarettes (and other drugs),as well as poor money management skills, are a major component of keeping the poor poor. When you live from pay check to pay check, there is no such thing as financial planning.
The state of the economy does not help, with there not being too many good paying jobs these days for non college educated people, but I think that a young couple who both work and who are thrifty and abstemious can progress in the world, acquire their own homes, raise a family etc. without deprivation.
Not everyone can live the good life, but even my tenants, who are pretty much at the bottom of the pile have motor vehicles (or access to) refrigerators, air conditioning, cell phones, cable and satellite television, washing machines, some kind of health care (babies delivered in modern, well equipped hospitals), enough to eat and other benefits that most occupants of the planet don't have.
Unfortunately, however, they will often prefer to spend their money on booze and cigarettes rather than on some bleach to occasionally clean the toilet.
But I don't think this makes it right for businesses to take advantage of their stupidity and gullibility. They need help to improve their lives, not exploitation. Obviously loan sharks are not charity workers, but government can and does regulate all kinds of things, and ought to regulate loan sharking better than it does.
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In defense of lenders
No one should think using a payday lender or comparable service is a good thing to be doing. What is completely missing here is any suggestion of what people in a fix should do instead. If you need a small loan quickly and you don't have great credit (no credit card) then your options are limited. If its a choice between a small loan with bad terms or having my electricity shut off...
Most of the calculations you see for how much is paid back and what the effective interest rate is include things like origination fees -- these make up a huge percentage of a small loan but they are far less than charged by banks for larger loans. These fees look large in comparison to the loan amount but are pretty reasonable if viewed as a loan origination fee, especially ifg compared to the add ons charged for a mortgage, car financing etc. Wall Street certainly gets the concept -- what are junk bonds other than a corporate equivalent that pay far higher returns than other corporate bonds?