Kansas Newspaper, Readers Sound Off On State’s Brewing Payday Loan Controversy
By Desmond CarlislePayday Loan Writer
The editorial page of Sunday's Wichita Eagle talks about the recent payday loan controversy in the Sunflower State, one that has exploded so rapidly and caused such a stir that many consider it a surreal scene.
Earlier this month, a Sunflower Community Action meeting about the dangers of payday loans was crashed by hundreds of people bused in by national lender LoanMax, which paid each of its “supporters” $100 and gave them T-shirts and free box lunches in exchange for showing up.
Bribing these warm bodies to show up in support for the industry, is a tactic that reveals just how low LoanMax and other payday lenders go.
When their cash-cow businesses are threatened, they will do whatever it takes to protect them, even if that means resorting to measures like these.
State lawmakers should regulate these multiplying businesses, and there is no time like the present. Ideas include limiting people to two fast cash loans each and requiring a statewide database be set up to keep track of payday lenders and borrowers.
Or, as some argue, are the ones being preyed upon getting what they deserve for being so fiscally irresponsible? Is the problem really the lenders, or the societal factors which force people to consider payday advances in the first place? Check out the newspaper's blog to see what readers have to say about this controversial issue.
