"Predatory" Payday Lenders Ripped Apart by Satirical Website PredatoryLendingAssociation.com
According to the ruthlessly satirical website's home page, "The Predatory Lending Association (PLA) is dedicated to extracting maximum profit from the working poor by increasing payday loan fees and debt traps. The working poor are an exciting, fast-growing demographic."
However, the website is based in serious factuality, and has been put together by researching data from the Center for Responsible Lending and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Using parody in an "Onionesque" way, the website uncovers industry lobbying and business practices, including a military base finder to target active duty military and a proprietary "PoorFinder" to target poor people using Google Maps.
In addition, the website features a suite of interactive racial profiling tools and a comparison of payday lending and indentured servitude.
"This wickedly funny and dead-on critique of the payday loan industry is the most sophisticated use of technology and satire that I've seen," testifies Elizabeth Warren, who is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School as well as a recognized expert on issues in the pay day lending industry.
"Pay day lenders profit by turning people's short-term financial pains into long-term financial pains," Mathieu said.
Consumer Federation of America director Jean Ann Fox has described payday lending as a transfer of wealth from the poor to the predatory and powerful, whom she equates with the "salary buyers" and "loan sharks" that became prominent in the United States in the 20th century.
Defenders of the practice say that the criticisms are entirely based on misinformation. They say that they are providing a much-needed-and much-desired-service to those who live paycheck to paycheck by making it possible for them to have their days-away salaries immediately given to them so that they can keep from falling behind on their bills. They assert that although the interest rates are indeed very, very high, this is necessary for them to run their business because the duration of the loan is very, very short, so that the usurious annual interest rates really only manifest as less than $70 in fees on average; and furthermore, they assert, most borrowers are very aware of what they will be paying.
What's more, they say, the working poor are typically people who need an immediate solution, and not a degrading on-the-spot financial education in which they are advised to follow the financial practices that they have already been ignoring for feel that they are too cash-strapped to be able to follow.
And they assert that as long as the payday lenders make all of their actions transparent, the responsibility for choosing to take a payday loan falls on the potential borrowers.
Original Newswire Source:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-20-2007/0004709295&EDATE=
Published by Brant McLaughlin
I am a Writer driven by endless curiosity and a deep desire to waste time creatively. View profile
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9 Comments
Post a CommentLaura, European economists aren't worth much. Ever paid attention to the European economy? Also, why the Regressive Leftwingnut rant? What in the world did my piece have to do with the supernatural demon that you Leftists name "Bush!" You did what all Leftists do: you projected your own Orwellian tactics onto the non-Leftists. Yes, you are slime-suckers, alright.
Yup, I have seen these things in action and once someone is lured into these situations, it is very difficult for them to get back out. Great article and info.
...and, unfortunately, Tennessee seems to have more of these than they do fast food joints! Sickening!
since when did predatory lending become the "subprime market"? that's the way this all works, guys, they use orwellian language to blame the victim! perfect. scum-suckers like bush, cheney, et al, first get rid of bankrupcy laws then suck 'em dry. according to european economists, the us is gonna pay for this until the end of the decade at least. the worst may be yet to come... hold on to that cash.
The scariest thing I find about them is that they are actually owned by the very banks most of us use for our checking and savings accounts!
Spider Lady say these people are like Black Widow. They suck the life out of the poor people who have now defense once they are stuck in they web. Just like the credit card companies, these are leagalzie loan sharks that keep comming up with new ways to rip people off.
Yeah, I don't have the highest opinions of these guys myself. A person would do better to simply call their creditors or landlords and explain to them that they'll have their money but just a few days late. They almost always are perfectly understanding.
These people are scum.
This sounds like a great site as well as an informational tool to give people insight into how such lenders operate.