Nathan Hunstad wrote:
But....there's something I can't quite put my finger on. For one thing,
it's not necessarily right to think that the invisible hand is working
correctly here. I think there's a reason that pretty much every major
world religion has laws against usury: because there are people who will
take advantage of people with less-than-stellar credit histories or
sophistication about banking.
The "audience" for predatory lenders is people who have little to no
experience with credit. They usually have so little money that having a
bank account which relies on good math skills but leaves no room for
math errors is too costly to have. They lives hand to mouth in one
sense, but they live generally outside the grip of the government as
well. Their taxes are 1040 short form and taken out of their wages by
the company they work for. The do work with their hands and their common
sense and ability to show up every day on time and seldom get sick.
Their children do not learn to use check books and bank cards or read
mortgage papers because they pay the bills with money orders on pay day,
end of story. Anything else is for food, clothes, cleaning supplies.
They are not on the dole, they get no food stamps, bus cards, section 8
or anything else. Their living spaces are plain and clean. You'll not be
invited over since the budget does not cover another mouth to feed and
the kids are getting little enough as it is.
Second, and more importantly, because when you
screw the little guys, they can't complain.
Predatory also means you don't have sense enough to know that you aren't
just screwing the little guy, but the whole community as well. Predation
is done by an entity or persons who see themselves as outside the
community, not a part of it and certainly not responsible for keeping
the community intact.
I give ACORN credit for their work. It was they who marshaled the
strength to challenge the Congress for laws against red lining and the
Community Reinvestment Act.
WizardMarks, Central
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