Paycheck Lenders - Proof of the State of the Bush Economy

Today I heard an article on paycheck lenders on NPR. These are legal loan sharks who charge up to 500% interest for people to take out loans against their next paycheck. If the lendee is not able to pay off their loan with their next paycheck, unlikely since their pay is so insufficient that they had been driven to the paycheck lender in the first place, the fees kick in and the lendee is never out of debt.

While there have always been pawn shops and organizations willing to lend against future earnings - some even will lend against a tax return - these groups have grown to the point where they have a powerful lobby in Washington. It is left as an exercise to the student to determine which side of the aisle they lobby hardest. I don't remember seeing these shops in great numbers during our last Presidency, only since the Bush economy has benefitted only the top one or two percent of Americans in terms of wealth have I began to see more and more of these shops around.

The growth of paycheck lenders illustrates one thing: Our economy is not benefitting the lower and middle classes of the economic scale. Investments are growing rapidly, as are corporate profits. Wages have declined under Bush, as has health coverage and the proposed budget would cut benefits for the lower end of the scale more. Bush has proposed 1.6 trillion dollars in tax cuts, primarily for the rich, while cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits by $100 billion. It is this irresponsibility that leads to paycheck lenders becoming more common and the less fortunate becoming even less fortunate. It's Republican values - defend the elite electorate and dupe the others, just as they have done with the Religious Right, just as they have with the Lee Greenwood patriots, just as they have with anyone who isn't a member of their elite supporters.