Payday Loans: Judge Not the Borrowers

I work for a company that markets payday loans. No one has asked me, but here's what I think about payday loans. They're a loan product like any other loan product. They're not a good loan product. But neither are credit cards nor a lot of home mortgages. Payday loan companies have bad reputations and they deserve them. They are the lowest of the low when it comes to marketing. They're tacky, unsophisticated, illiterate, pushy beyond belief, and misleading. They're all that, and more. Judge the companies all day long, if it's fun for you. It's fun for me, certainly. But I say we shouldn't judge the people who borrow money from payday lenders, and here's why.

I've lived a lot of my life on the edge of financial disaster. There have been long years where I didn't know how I'd eat the next day or how I'd feed my dog. I've also lived fairly high up on the hog. I've had good-paying jobs, nice houses, expensive vacations, and new cars. I know what it's like to have the luxury of being able overspend, and I know what it's like to be in desperate need of money. I know what it's like to walk past a homeless person and realize that the only thing in the world that separates my fate from his is the credit card in my pocket.

This much I know: you don't know what it's like to really need money until you've really needed money. Most of my friends, if you asked them, would have a different take on this issue. My friends may not be rich, relatively speaking, but they're financially solid. Some have simply worked hard and held tight to their money reins. Others have inherited money. Others have married money. Others have had able and willing parents to lean on when they needed help. Others have had interesting and financially rewarding long-term careers. In fact, most people I know would take a negative view of any payday loan borrower. But I say you don't know what drives any person to need money badly enough that they'll turn to a payday lender. And even if you did know, you wouldn't understand it unless you have genuinely feared living in the streets yourself. Therefore, while I admit that I get my kicks by silently scorning and deriding all the ridiculous marketing ploy s payday lenders dream up — and that they pay me to help implement — I refuse to judge the borrowers they attract.