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“Since leaving office I’ve written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I’ve come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.

Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don’t take away cars because we don’t like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don’t operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.”

“Payday lending bans simply push low-income borrowers into less pleasant options, including increased rates of bankruptcy. Net result: After a lending ban, the consumer has the same amount of debt but fewer ways to manage it.”

But McGovern goes beyond the mere mechanics of how banning or restricting payday advances hurts consumers.  He offers insight into the very foundations of individual liberty and how it’s engrained in American society and culture:

“Since leaving office I’ve written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I’ve come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.”

At the risk of getting too classical, your Payday Pundit is reminded of this gem from Italian statesman and poet Dante Alighieri which well parallels the sentiments in McGovern’s WSJ piece:

“Mankind is at its best when it is most free.  This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty.  We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds.”

Seems we could use a little more 14th Century wisdom in the 21st Century.