Thursday, October 16, 2008

Who's listening?

I am. I hope you are, too. See this article. Here are some good snippets, in case you're too busy/lazy/apathetic to read the link. The part about pay day lenders is especially insightful.

[O]ur nation’s “negative savings rate” reflects the habits of private citizens, showing those habits to be not tremendously different than the habits of the public sector.
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[P]ay day loan companies...are nearly always set up in lower-income neighborhoods. These people, who are struggling to buy food and pay rent, get addicted to the credit drug. Their standard of living is only further depressed by the interest payments on these loans that make them profitable to their providers. Thus, the recipients are left even less capable of paying for items such as food and housing in the long run, without using this credit again and again.
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Capitalism does not exist without capital and debt is not, has never been and will never be a form of capital.

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