In a new post, M*A*S*H 4077 and M*E*S*S HB 333, The Wandering Heretic discusses an episode of M*A*S*H and efforts in Ohio to legislate payday lenders out of business. A few excerpts:

This Emmy winning episode reminds me in many ways of the Ohio pastors’ efforts to pass HB 333; a law which will in essence shut down the Payday Lending institution in the State.

If the Ohio pastors feel that high interest rates are oppressing the poor (to use their exact words) then they should not appeal to Caesar to pass laws; instead, they should get involved in the process themselves. By getting involved in the process I don’t mean the legal or legislative process; I mean the Payday Lending process. If the Payday Lenders are charging usurious interest rates in order to make oppressive profits on the backs of the poor (an assertion I reject, by the way); then the church should not seek to interfere with the lenders using the State. Instead, if a church is called to this mission of limiting such interest, then they should open their own lending office charging rates that they feel are just.

The major downside of this approach is that it will involve a lot of work on the part of the church. They will have to find funding sources for their operations, find people to staff the operations, get the legal advice necessary to create the appropriate documents and contracts, procure the office locations—even if they are church buildings—and make then secure. In short, they will have to incur all of the hassles and expenses as do the payday lenders themselves.

In that way, and only in that way, will the church avoid being the high flying bombardier, appealing to Caesar to pass laws like Hathaway dropped bombs, remaining clean and separate from the explosions they will cause. Instead, it will be the M*A*S*H surgeon on the ground, working for healing. But this will take work, hard and long term, sometimes frustrating, work. However, if the churches as a whole are not willing to get involved and get their hands dirty on that level, then they should get out of the way and let the Payday lenders do their jobs.

Payday Pundit just searched for the M*A*S*H theme song and found some interesting videos on you tube.

In short, the demand for high interest loans for high credit risk people will always be there. The issue is how will this demand be met? It can be through the government controlled, legally restricted, and relatively gentler auspices of Payday Lenders, or it can come from another less official source.

My fear is not so much as to what will happen to the Payday Lenders as much as to what will replace them. Like my father’s day of “four for five” someone will be providing the funds to the people who perceive that they need them. If the poor can no longer have access to official sources then the risk is that they will entangle them in “unofficial” ones. By eliminating legally controlled and restricted sources you may very subject them to uncontrolled, unrestricted, and illegal ones.

Edmund Burke was only partly correct. Sometimes all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do the wrong thing, or even the right thing the wrong way or at the wrong time.

“If Grendell’s bill or House Bill 333 were to pass, the payday-lending industry says its more than 1,600 stores would be put out of business quickly. Under a 36-percent rate, they would be allowed to charge less than $1.50 per $100 borrowed on a two-week loan. The current rate is about $15.”