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Predatory Lending Association
Look out PayDay loan proprietors!The web has often been used to make a point (The Onion anyone?). But rarely has it been used as effectively as with the Predatory Lending Association.
This site has it all: Loan calculators, discussion boards, racial profiling tools, and a Google maps based "poor finder" that makes suggestions for where you should open up your next PayDay loan store. The site is extremely sarcastic and attempts to illustrate the cold, calculating, and corrupt business practices of predatory lenders, many of which exist simply to let people with lower incomes hock their next pay check and take the money to the Casino.
For those who aren't in the USA, PayDay loan stores offer short term loans with enormous fees based on your previous pay stub. They let you get your check early, but they'll charge you 10-30% to do it.
The site encourages people to sign up for their mailing list so they can notify you of future projects and whether or not PayDay lenders attempt to hack the site and take it down.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsrocketboyNov 15th 2007 9:17PM
What can I say, stupidity has a price. Payday loans do not 'prey' on the poor, they 'prey' in the idiots, and only the poor idiots need the service. They 'prey' on the poor no more than the lottery, does.
TimNov 16th 2007 9:01AM
@rocketboy: I completely agree. I thought I'd toss that out there before you're attacked for being evil somehow. Each human being is responsible for him/herself. Period.
Ian SmithNov 16th 2007 10:30AM
@rocketboy: I believe the lottery has been called a tax on people who can't add. It is true that PayDay loans only "prey" on people who volunteer for them, but part of educating the "idiots" (as you call them) is to point out the truly nasty business practices that often go with PayDay loan stores. The more people know the fewer people there will be who will fall for this kind of stuff.
TurboFoolNov 16th 2007 2:49PM
Site already appears to be down. Too bad, it sounded clever.
JamesNov 19th 2007 2:07PM
I never know how to react here -- the libertarian in me wants to say "It's your own damn fault", but when you lose your house and you're out on the street, we as a society don't have the stomach to say "OK, freeze to death then". I don't want the government to hold *my* hand, but I feel like they kind of have to hold *other peoples'* hands, you know? Maybe we need a "one strike, you're out" policy where once you do something stupid and have to declare bankruptcy, you get transferred to a more socialist/Big Mother-type system where the government makes you keep your nose clean. Maybe not.
Anyway, I wish I had seen the site. It does sound kind of funny, in a gallows-humor sort of way.