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Oct. 13, 2009 Star Parker is yet another conservative townhall columnist. Her most recent column is entitled "Consumers need protection, all right--but from their government." She's appealing to the conservative mentality of--Duh, government bad; free market good. Of course, her reasoning is outrageous and full of rabbit raisins. She's opposed to a weak reform effort that includes establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. She writes that "The most important product in our country is freedom, and unfortunately, it's this product that President Barack Obama and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank find most defective. They really think that politicians and bureaucrats can take better care of people than we can take care of ourselves." This quote is a horrendous mischaracterization of what the reform effort is intended to do. It's not going to restrict the average person's freedom--it's going to prevent banks from ripping us off. Banks shouldn't have the freedom to steal people's paychecks, just like the mafia shouldn't have the freedom to pilfer through people's wallets. To support her ridiculous position, she cites a vote in Ohio where the people chose to cap annual interest rates on payday loans to 28%. According to her, this was bad because 700 out of 1600 payday loan offices in the state closed, drying up credit. What she doesn't tell us about is the interest rates these crooks were charging. They charged 911% on a one week loan, 456% on a two week loan, and 212% on a one month loan. I can't believe anyone would defend this criminality. So 700 of these crooked businesses closed? Too bad all 1600 weren't forced out of business. With this kind of attitude, it's a wonder Star Parker doesn't support legalizing mafia loan sharking. After all, keeping the mafia loan shark business illegal dries up credit.
The difference between mafia loan sharks and payday loan businesses is that the government decides one is legal and one is not. The moral principle is the same. Anyone who supports the existence of the either just has no integrity whatsoever.
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