Poor people, through their own profligacy, often need short term loans. Interest on payday loans in TX ranges from 400% to 1,000 per cent per year. Why shouldn't Community Foundations align their mission and their money by investing in these loans? They could do well and do good right here in TX. Collections can be handled by poor people hired to reposses the borrower's furniture or break the debtor's legs. Thus, the good spirals, particularly if the legs broken are those of undocumented Mexicans, thus discouraging others from imposing their social cost on our Ownership Society.
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I've been trying to engage people at the Open Money forum in this topic but so far no takers. There is no way that a mutual risk pool could eat up 400-1000% annually, so it seems to me that these communities are ripe for what they are proposing. I'll be in Mexico next week with Jean, Lewis and others, so hopefully we can make some progress in these areas too.
Posted by: Gerry | February 28, 2008 at 06:24 PM
Left a comment there.
Posted by: phil | February 28, 2008 at 08:30 PM