I could never support a democrat who supports loan sharks over poor, desperate people

[MineralMan]

6. Sadly, we don't have a good alternative in some cases.

There's no government lending fund for people who find themselves in an emergency situation, as can happen so easily. Pawn shops have been the traditional resource, but many people have nothing to pawn. Employers used to advance money to employees who faced some sort of emergency, but that's not done much any longer.

The payday loan business is predatory. There is no doubt about it. The pawn shop industry is predatory, too, but I don't see anyone trying to ban pawn shops. I remember 6 for 5 payday lenders in the military, too. That was illegal, but it went on, regardless. There was always someone ready to loan you money near payday on that basis at every base I was assigned to. Generally, the sums borrowed were small, of course, but the interest rate on a 6 for 5 loan is huge, especially if you just got the money for a few days before having to pay it back.

Before we remove access to lenders of last resort, we will need to have an alternative ready to replace them. I can think of several ways that could be handled by some government organization. Such loans are very high risk, of course, and many wouldn't be repaid, so there would be losses. However, low income workers can find themselves in an impossible situation at a moment's notice.

It's easy to say that payday lenders should be shut down, and easy enough to make them illegal, but the situations that cause people to turn to them will not go away. We should be finding a way to provide access to emergency funds on short notice for people who need those funds desperately. I haven't seen anyone suggesting how to do that, though.