An analysis by the Center for American Progress (an organization founded by the same folks who founded the Center for Responsible Lending), Who Borrows From Payday Lenders?, looks at the demographics of payday lending customers and concludes ”these findings largely echo figures available on payday lending industry websites and studies published by private researchers.” Turns out (surprise!) that payday lenders have a good idea of who actually uses their service.
Of even more importance is their concluding paragraph:
Restrictions on payday loans, though, will have to be considered carefully. Only a minority of payday borrowers indicated that these were loans taken out for convenience reasons. The majority of these loans were borrowed for several reasons: no other options were available, a family had to cover basic consumption needs, and for emergency purposes. Restrictions on payday loans thus will have to be balanced with more savings opportunities and other, lower-cost credit opportunities for families who now rely on payday loans.
Well said. They may want to talk to their friends over at CRL and let them know that flat-out banning payday loans may not be in the best interest of families.
While the final paragraph does carry a slight shade of “non-partisan” moderation, the rest of this report takes the usual “let us tell you” angle on most every critical word choice and sentence construction throughout– liberally cribbing from often faulty and overworked CRL data to build a conveniently adverse picture of the industry.
The addition of “consider restrictions carefully” at the very end is a smug throw away. A filler line used to imbue a sense of equity, when the rest of the article carries none. After reading all this data– likely intended to fuel recent legislative efforts– what converse “considerations” are there for the reader to think about? Few if any, reasons for “consideration” are even mentioned here.
Were I unfamiliar with payday loans, the truths of the product and the millions of grateful and appreciative users of this service, I could see how simple it would be to line people up on the shortsighted and knee-jerk personal-politicking of the payday loan hate wagon. This “report” paints one skewed view in just the hue needed to further the “ban payday loan” agenda, and almost totally neglects the other– the sad and standard tone in the majority of many payday loan discussions these days.
What I don’t understand is this: why is there such a general resistance to any kind of compromise/Washingtonian meeting in the middle over this issue?
This current environment of short-sighted, uncooperative, condescending and irrational rancor over payday loan services is going to have me squirting blood out of my eyes, confined to a Federally funded mental ward or having a public Jim Cramer crazy moment by Spring’s end.
Pass the Advil, please.