What $200 Can Buy You

I've been feverishly studying the June 2 reports released by the Secretary of State, detailing who gave what to which candidate, and it appears to me that $200 goes a lot farther today than you might think.

What can you get for $200? A couple tanks of gas? Check. A month's worth of lattes with a reasonable tip to the barista? Check.

The right to charge 325% interest on someone borrowing money? Check.

Think of it. I loan you $100 and tell you that you can pay me back, but for every week you owe me an additional $5. If you take a whole year, giving me $5/week to float the loan, before you pay me the $100 back, then you get the idea. You've paid me $350 on a $100 loan. That's insane. But folks do it every day by visiting payday loan places.

These shops are all over the place on the north and east side of town, and that's because no one with any options uses their services. 300% interest is like a bad mob movie - I'm thinking Mother abusing Worm in Rounders.

But, this past legislative session, some Democrats floated a measure (HB-1310) designed to stop this practice. They claimed it was immoral and helped keep the most needy of us, well... the most needy of us. The Republicans, always looking out for the downtrodden, resisted this, running with claims about free markets and Ayn Rand, and claiming that this would destroy an entire industry, and cost a bunch of jobs.

Now, I like business, and money, too. But if an entire is going to become bankrupt because they are only allowed to charge people 45% annual interest, then I say, "Fuck 'em." Forty-five percent is almost double what the worst credit cards charge, and yet this industry has thrived for years. And this is three or four times what a subprime mortgage will charge you (if you can find one) annually... OK, bad example.

The point here is that this industry makes its money by charging whatever it wants of people who have no other options. It's called usury, and I'm pretty sure that most editions of the Bible, and even the moral codes that some of us pagans live by, consider it wrong.

But not Rep. Glenn Vaad (R-Greeley, HD-48) or Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield, SD-23). They both took contributions for industry political committees, and then went out and voted to keep this sleazy practice legal, voting against HB-1310.

So this fall, when you're voting, remember that if you aren't the owner of a bank, and it you sometimes find yourself living from paycheck to paycheck, that Vaad and Mitchell don't care if someone is screwing you. Vote for (and give some money to) Bill Williams and Joe Whitcomb.