The poverty industry

Broke, USA :From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business by Gary Rivlin isn't about the dollar stores and mini-marts that cater to people who need to get by on less. This is about pay-day lenders, check-cashing stores and subprime mortgages. The industry started with pawn shops loaning money for your ring or gold watch. The customer paid back the money plus a high interest rate to get the item back. Now there are people who offer to do income tax for free and then offer to give the customer an instant refund minus a large fee. This book is eye opening and stomach upsetting. Payday lenders have huge TV advertising budgets targeting the intended audience. Subprime mortgages worked as long as property values were rising. There would only be a problem if prices fell and they did. People were trapped in mortgages they couldn't afford with housing prices falling. As more families went into foreclosue, prices fell even more. We all know the rest. STE