As I was driving home yesterday, I heard an interesting radio ad from a pay day lender. After touting the virtues of overpriced loans, the ad ended with the comment "always use pay day advances responsibly."
This struck me as very similar to the comments made at the end of beer and other liquor commercials that end "please drink responsibly."
And that's when the idea hit that perhaps the solution to pay day lending is to treat this business the same as we treat the sale of alcohol. Pay day lenders already have mark-ups on their products almost as high as the alcohol tax (though without the public benefit the alcohol tax provides since the tax pays for school lunch programs across the state), all we need to do now is limit all pay day lendors to 1 per 100,000 people, locate them in the most out of the way spots, perhaps right next to our liquor stores, or, if they are more centrally located, charge a membership fee to enter!
Okay, perhaps its not a perfect solution, but if the lenders recognize the dangers of "overindulging" in pay day loans, shouldn't they also be willing to accept some common sense protections for those who have a tendency to do so, just like our local bars, taverns, and clubs?
This struck me as very similar to the comments made at the end of beer and other liquor commercials that end "please drink responsibly."
And that's when the idea hit that perhaps the solution to pay day lending is to treat this business the same as we treat the sale of alcohol. Pay day lenders already have mark-ups on their products almost as high as the alcohol tax (though without the public benefit the alcohol tax provides since the tax pays for school lunch programs across the state), all we need to do now is limit all pay day lendors to 1 per 100,000 people, locate them in the most out of the way spots, perhaps right next to our liquor stores, or, if they are more centrally located, charge a membership fee to enter!
Okay, perhaps its not a perfect solution, but if the lenders recognize the dangers of "overindulging" in pay day loans, shouldn't they also be willing to accept some common sense protections for those who have a tendency to do so, just like our local bars, taverns, and clubs?
