England does a lot of things on a ‘means-tested’ basis, and I’d love to see banks do loans on that basis, and taxes be paid that way too.. More so than they are right now.
Sadly the means-tested thing will always lead to a few abusers, and it makes it somewhat difficult to get out of the ‘poverty trap’ where leaving welfare gets too expensive once you have to pay more of your own way, but mostly it works well.

I’d love to see the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation take that one on. No or very low-interest loans.

Dotbar- Hear, hear! I too have been pretty poor, but never went to the payday places. As for the rich…what can I say that you don’t already know?

Cryptojoe- ATM’s don’t charge you if you are a customer of the ATM owner. So those fees CAN be avoided. Not so for those stuck in the payday loan trap. I agree with you about those who cry poverty and spend their money on luxury items instead of gasoline or food or whatever they really need. But while it is easy to say don’t spend more than you make, it is harder to develop a real budget and stick to it without some education about how to do so. Also, when costs of food and transportation go up but wages don’t, managing to spend on what you need without an increase in income can lead to a slow accumulation of debt despite best efforts.

Chandira- Banks don’t do a lot of short term loans for one thing. And those that do still want some kind of collateral. These sharks have found a niche and exploited the rules of decency to get their nut.
I agree that we need to look for alternative ways to lend money to people who really are stuck in a temporary bad spot and just need a temporary hand up. Something to put on my thinking cap about…

Ryan- You are welcome. Drop by anytime.

Mike V- Thanks-and you are right. Some good news of note is that some legislators are seeking to revise the legislation regarding these businesses. Sadly, it is too few doing this kind of work. Maybe a tide of decency will catch on…

Marie- There was bound to be something eventually. Thanks for persevering!

these places are pure and simple loansharks.

I understand the need for responsibility of the consumer, but there also has to be some control of those that will take advantage of others in such a reckless way..

I can’t undertand why people don’t go to their bank, don’t they charge a lot less interest? Maybe I’m not aware of some of the issues people face, but that would make sense to me.
We’re all implicated financially, I posted a thing on socially responsible investing a while back. If we’re lucky enough to be near the other end of the scale, and have money to invest, that’s also somewhere we can make a difference.

And Education – that is easy, don’t spend more money than you make. I crack up when some is complaining about their credit card debt yet they have a big screen TV in the livingroom, a rack full of 500 DVD’s, while checking the time on their TAG watch.

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