Operation Financial Freedom
In accordance with a law passed by Congress at the urging of the Pentagon last year, the military this week implemented new rules to protect service men and women from payday and other types of risky loans. This is part of an effort to promote our military readiness by ensuring the financial security of our soldiers. That effort also includes increased access to financial planning, financial education course offerings, and the encouragement of emergency savings accounts.
As I've blogged about before though, how can certain types of loans be predatory and harmful for one class of citizens but a beneficial part of the free market for everyone else? If these types of loans are really a healthy part of the free market because they provide consumers with more choices, why shouldn't soldiers have access to them too?
Usury and predatory lending are what they are,
Check N Go is ironically a mirror of the fiscal
standards and practices apparent in Congress today, and, whether aimed at our servicemembers or privatecitizens, they're in the same league as pawnshops and are likely operated by the same BANKS. Hmmmmmm...............If you've ever been
in the service, especially the army, then you've
seen the little off-post communities that spring
up, and you see the check-cashing place next
to the used car dealership next to the pawnshop
next to the liquor store. Frauds and rackets
are just that, and even if a troop has a guaranteed paycheck next month, it's no reason
to leave them exposed to fraudulent business
practices. If the only reason that soldiers
get paid is to excrete money into the local
community, if that's ALL that keeps some of those
towns alive, then that sounds like as good a
case for urban renewal as any, to me.
October 7, 2007 9:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
October 8, 2007 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink