Houston Press articles on selling hope at a high price
Eaten alive by financial firms that prey on the poor
Consumers, facing exhausted credit and mounting bills, are relying ever more on the fringe economy. Between 1985 and 2000, the number of pawnshops in America tripled. There are now more payday loan outlets in America than McDonald's restaurants. Plano-based Rent-A-Center began in 1986 with eight stores and now dominates the rent-to-own industry with more than 2,500 outlets in 50 states. And the nation's largest tax preparers, such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, more than doubled their earnings between 1998 and 2001 on fringe-economy "fast cash" products targeted to low-income customers.
The War on the Stupid
Do: Pay $3,000 for software that purports to get you rich through trading in the stock market.
Don't: Read the fine print in the contract, which says the software doesn't come with instructions or training. And when you do finally receive the instructions or training, you automatically forfeit the right to a refund.
1 comment:
That Houston Press article was a good story, but it would have been nice if they could have picked as an example someone who wasn't blowing money on designer clothes and stupid crap. I have known people who never, ever splurged on anything stupid, who still had to avail themselves of some of these high-interest businesses. Using this woman with obviously bad judgement as their "case study" just reinforces the idea that it's their own damn fault.
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