My gut response was that payday loan/loan sharks either buy fake reviews or offer incentives to customers to leave five star reviews. Both seem more likely than everyone being thrilled with their...
My gut response was that payday loan/loan sharks either buy fake reviews or offer incentives to customers to leave five star reviews. Both seem more likely than everyone being thrilled with their service.
Samples from Fresno's first location that popped up
Found it to be dependable for covering unforeseen costs, and the easy, fast method of receiving same-day cash appears handy when I'm under pressure and need money right away
manager person who happily helped them out and made getting their loan a breezy, pleasant experience. The rates ended up being surprisingly affordable too apparently, which I seemed pleased about.
What drives us has always been appreciation for farmers who care for their land properly. We don't believe in forcing strict rules about how farms should be run with their amazing loans
Others was just shocked that something so easy could come with such low rates. One lady said she was grinning ear-to-ear soon as she seen the terms - best loan of her life
It's.... Almost like those are all fake. They're all accounts with a single review too. To the level that this feels like a dishonest article advocating for the "free market" solutions.
Yeah, the author apparently works for True Charity, which is a weird Christian, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", free market solutions, work requirement advocacy "charity". Their 'About'...
Yeah, the author apparently works for True Charity, which is a weird Christian, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", free market solutions, work requirement advocacy "charity". Their 'About' video and several sections on the site disparage charities and government programs that give "free handouts" (like food and food stamps) to people, claiming they offer "perverse incentives" which "trap people in poverty". So I personally wouldn't put too much stock in this article either.
Yes, perhaps they are fake, but based on what I’ve read in other articles, I also think it’s likely that many of their customers like their customer service, perhaps for class reasons. Here’s an...
Yes, perhaps they are fake, but based on what I’ve read in other articles, I also think it’s likely that many of their customers like their customer service, perhaps for class reasons.
That is to say: bank tellers work for an American corporation with an HR department. And bank tellers, in their hearts and in their actions, internalize the class that they must, must, must present as. There are classes of people that the bank does not want to do business with. (Banks are, as we have frequently covered, not allowed to say this in as many words.) The tellers do not want to speak to them, either, and this disdain radiates from them as palpable waves.
The clerk at a check cashing business is not a bank teller. She does not disdain talking to poor people; being able to do that in such a way that most poor people end up liking her is her job. Don’t take my word for it; take the customers’. We have studied this industry extensively. We ran surveys. The customers keep saying things like “I like my local check cashing place because the girl behind the counter is kind and doesn’t judge me like those #%*(#%( at the bank.” You can present as being kind to almost all of your customers and be obviously unemployable as a bank teller.
It links to a more formal article about the differences:
We can certainly make a lot of assumptions, but if I'm an article writer using reviews as evidence and not bothering to have the slightest amount of skepticism about it, I'm doing a disservice to...
We can certainly make a lot of assumptions, but if I'm an article writer using reviews as evidence and not bothering to have the slightest amount of skepticism about it, I'm doing a disservice to my readers and writing a rather disingenuous article.
Loan sharks and check cashing both target poor people and having good customer service absolutely makes folks feel more accepted. I have a friend that does check cashing at Walmart as part of her other duties. Same deal. But the pay day loan location I looked at had a ton of 5 star reviews, some 4 stars and then a bunch of 1 star. Plenty of people are dissatisfied, and I didn't find a real looking review in the first two pages.
That's just one location, but I'm not the one writing an article making claims about how good the loan sharks industry is. This is bad writing by a conservative think tank writer.
The tone of this article makes me sick. Poor people are not children to be scolded. No, you do not know what they need better than they do. If their needs were being served by the "correct"...
The tone of this article makes me sick.
Just because people like something doesn’t mean it helps them achieve their long-term goals.
Poor people are not children to be scolded. No, you do not know what they need better than they do. If their needs were being served by the "correct" routes, there wouldn't be so many payday loan businesses.
I like that he covered all the alternatives, but a more neutral conclusion might be that charities, government, and for-profit lending all seem to be needed? It doesn’t seem like charities could...
I like that he covered all the alternatives, but a more neutral conclusion might be that charities, government, and for-profit lending all seem to be needed? It doesn’t seem like charities could serve all the people that the lenders do?
The author is one of those Christians who believes that poor people just don't work hard enough and that charity should be the only solution, so I don't exactly trust their assessment. Having been...
The author is one of those Christians who believes that poor people just don't work hard enough and that charity should be the only solution, so I don't exactly trust their assessment. Having been one of those Christians in the past myself, I can confirm that it's incredibly detached from any form of economic reality unless you really want only (mostly religious) charities to be able to manipulate poor people in exchange for the scraps they give out.
God is good and merciful and just, and rewards the faithful who work hard, therefor all people who God punishes by inflicting poverty and poor health on must not be true believers, are just lazy,...
God is good and merciful and just, and rewards the faithful who work hard, therefor all people who God punishes by inflicting poverty and poor health on must not be true believers, are just lazy, or they're doing something bad and so deserve it, right?
Fucking hell, I hate prosperity theology. It causes so much more unnecessary suffering in the world by justifying lack of empathy for people in need. It's basically the exact opposite of what Jesus preached too, which is what makes it wild to me that so many Christians (esp in the US) believe it.
What I grew up believing wasn't even prosperity theology, I hate to say. Growing up, we hated prosperity gospel preachers like Joel Osteen more than most. But I think that makes our conservative...
What I grew up believing wasn't even prosperity theology, I hate to say. Growing up, we hated prosperity gospel preachers like Joel Osteen more than most. But I think that makes our conservative "those who shall not work shall not eat" even worse -- even without believing that wealth was a sign of God's blessing and poverty thus a sign of a lack thereof, we still didn't believe in any systematic help for the poor. Only charity, which can be used to convert them and coerce them into behaving as we believed was right, was acceptable.
Oof, yeah, that's actually worse. At least if people believe others suffering is God's doing, and only those who deserve it suffer, then I can sort of understand those people's views on those in...
Oof, yeah, that's actually worse. At least if people believe others suffering is God's doing, and only those who deserve it suffer, then I can sort of understand those people's views on those in need. But believing that "those who shall not work shall not eat" seems especially cruel for no reason that I can fathom. :(
There is a verse to that effect (hence the pithy quote) that's even New Testament (I think one of the Thessalonians but idr the reference), but it does otherwise seem to run pretty contrary to...
There is a verse to that effect (hence the pithy quote) that's even New Testament (I think one of the Thessalonians but idr the reference), but it does otherwise seem to run pretty contrary to what Jesus taught about the poor. I think it was largely dogma in the group of fundamentalist evangelicals I grew up in more because of our belief in the GOP than anything really Biblical. Growing up I didn't even believe Democrats could be Christians.
In our high school speech class debates, the teacher tended to assign the smart kids to the "wrong" side and the poor students to the "right" one, to make it more even. One of those debates was "should the government provide welfare", and the teacher assigned me to thd "yes" side as a challenge. It was my first time even considering arguments for "the other side". Because it was such an obvious right-wrong question for us, the students we were put against didn't even bother putting up any arguments (not even from the Bible, which was fair game as a source). The whole class still voted that they won anyway, simply because they were on the "right" side, and that stuck with me in ways I wasn't fully conscious of at the time, I think. In any case, I'm a communist now.
So I grew up Catholic but once again, we're all but the same person, because this is absolutely my trajectory in life, but I'd probably put myself more generally into "leftist" than "communist"...
So I grew up Catholic but once again, we're all but the same person, because this is absolutely my trajectory in life, but I'd probably put myself more generally into "leftist" than "communist"
My gut response was that payday loan/loan sharks either buy fake reviews or offer incentives to customers to leave five star reviews. Both seem more likely than everyone being thrilled with their service.
Samples from Fresno's first location that popped up
It's.... Almost like those are all fake. They're all accounts with a single review too. To the level that this feels like a dishonest article advocating for the "free market" solutions.
Yeah, the author apparently works for True Charity, which is a weird Christian, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", free market solutions, work requirement advocacy "charity". Their 'About' video and several sections on the site disparage charities and government programs that give "free handouts" (like food and food stamps) to people, claiming they offer "perverse incentives" which "trap people in poverty". So I personally wouldn't put too much stock in this article either.
As Jesus said, "Blessed is he who pulls himself up by his own bootstraps."
All praise Supply Side Jesus.
Totally sounds real 🙄
Yes, perhaps they are fake, but based on what I’ve read in other articles, I also think it’s likely that many of their customers like their customer service, perhaps for class reasons.
Here’s an article about a related industry:
The business of check cashing:
It links to a more formal article about the differences:
Unbanked status and use of alternative financial services among minority populations
We can certainly make a lot of assumptions, but if I'm an article writer using reviews as evidence and not bothering to have the slightest amount of skepticism about it, I'm doing a disservice to my readers and writing a rather disingenuous article.
Loan sharks and check cashing both target poor people and having good customer service absolutely makes folks feel more accepted. I have a friend that does check cashing at Walmart as part of her other duties. Same deal. But the pay day loan location I looked at had a ton of 5 star reviews, some 4 stars and then a bunch of 1 star. Plenty of people are dissatisfied, and I didn't find a real looking review in the first two pages.
That's just one location, but I'm not the one writing an article making claims about how good the loan sharks industry is. This is bad writing by a conservative think tank writer.
Yes, the evidence in the article is pretty weak, which is why I rely more on other things I’ve read.
The tone of this article makes me sick.
Poor people are not children to be scolded. No, you do not know what they need better than they do. If their needs were being served by the "correct" routes, there wouldn't be so many payday loan businesses.
I like that he covered all the alternatives, but a more neutral conclusion might be that charities, government, and for-profit lending all seem to be needed? It doesn’t seem like charities could serve all the people that the lenders do?
The author is one of those Christians who believes that poor people just don't work hard enough and that charity should be the only solution, so I don't exactly trust their assessment. Having been one of those Christians in the past myself, I can confirm that it's incredibly detached from any form of economic reality unless you really want only (mostly religious) charities to be able to manipulate poor people in exchange for the scraps they give out.
God is good and merciful and just, and rewards the faithful who work hard, therefor all people who God punishes by inflicting poverty and poor health on must not be true believers, are just lazy, or they're doing something bad and so deserve it, right?
Fucking hell, I hate prosperity theology. It causes so much more unnecessary suffering in the world by justifying lack of empathy for people in need. It's basically the exact opposite of what Jesus preached too, which is what makes it wild to me that so many Christians (esp in the US) believe it.
What I grew up believing wasn't even prosperity theology, I hate to say. Growing up, we hated prosperity gospel preachers like Joel Osteen more than most. But I think that makes our conservative "those who shall not work shall not eat" even worse -- even without believing that wealth was a sign of God's blessing and poverty thus a sign of a lack thereof, we still didn't believe in any systematic help for the poor. Only charity, which can be used to convert them and coerce them into behaving as we believed was right, was acceptable.
Oof, yeah, that's actually worse. At least if people believe others suffering is God's doing, and only those who deserve it suffer, then I can sort of understand those people's views on those in need. But believing that "those who shall not work shall not eat" seems especially cruel for no reason that I can fathom. :(
There is a verse to that effect (hence the pithy quote) that's even New Testament (I think one of the Thessalonians but idr the reference), but it does otherwise seem to run pretty contrary to what Jesus taught about the poor. I think it was largely dogma in the group of fundamentalist evangelicals I grew up in more because of our belief in the GOP than anything really Biblical. Growing up I didn't even believe Democrats could be Christians.
In our high school speech class debates, the teacher tended to assign the smart kids to the "wrong" side and the poor students to the "right" one, to make it more even. One of those debates was "should the government provide welfare", and the teacher assigned me to thd "yes" side as a challenge. It was my first time even considering arguments for "the other side". Because it was such an obvious right-wrong question for us, the students we were put against didn't even bother putting up any arguments (not even from the Bible, which was fair game as a source). The whole class still voted that they won anyway, simply because they were on the "right" side, and that stuck with me in ways I wasn't fully conscious of at the time, I think. In any case, I'm a communist now.
So I grew up Catholic but once again, we're all but the same person, because this is absolutely my trajectory in life, but I'd probably put myself more generally into "leftist" than "communist"
Still, twinsies. ღ´͈ ᵕ
͈ )♡⃛(´͈ ᵕ͈ ღ