Today I got, in the 'Bergland Campaign' mailbox (at Box 12961 Reno, 89510, by the way...), one letter. No, it wasn't a nice check from you for $50 to help with this campaign, it was instead from a Loan Company.
Inside was a legal sized folded paper, with a smiling face of a nice young woman who looks like she just hit the lotto. Or did something equally satisfying.
We'll call this letter from the hypothetical Penny Loan Center, for lack of a more caustic name, and they are offering to loan you $500.00 for TWO weeks.
They'll charge you just over $38.20 for that $500.
Their competitors charge for the same loan:
MoneyShrub=$82.45 Check Village=$$80.00 Paycheck Advice=$99.99
Well, ok, if I'm desperate, I'll pay almost 40 bucks for a $500 loan for 2 weeks. The rates of interest for these loans are, in order of company (above):
199.99% APR, 430.18% APR, 417% APR, and 521.43% APR.
Now, if you're really desperate, and are really really really broke, you can pay this off over one full year, at only about $19 a week.
Here's how that works. Over a 53 week period you pay out over $1016.00. But no, there's even more to this incredible offer. You ALSO get to pay a final payment of...$500.
And hey, hey, hey, you can apply ONLINE, any time, and they even Se Habla Espanol!
Wow!
Say, if I then take out a second loan -- to make the payments for the first loan -- then it will cost hardly nothing. Maybe I can order some campaign bumperstickers? Or a couple of one-inch ads in the rural newspapers just before the election? Or a bus ticket to visit a couple of the outlying areas of District 2 here in Nevada? What a great idea....
And there are almost 10 of these offices here near Reno, I can hit them online while I tour the state.
No.
Sometimes I think my attempts at sarcasm fail.

These Userers should be put in jail. They should be put into a public pillory, and those who have been financially-abused should have their way with them. Handily, vigorously, and repeatedly.
Usury is defined as: "3: an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest; specif : interest in excess of a legal rate charged to a borrower for the use of money"
The most important word in that last sentence was -- legal.
At one time, here in America, we had laws against Usury and predatory lending.
That law is gone. Congress did away with it, for some vague and secretive reason.
It is time for Congress to re-instate our laws against unfair lending. This crime is a moral, financial, societal and personal molestation put on us by the spiritually-bankrupt greedy among us. And it does affect us all in one way or another.
Congess took away OUR Usury law, and ONLY Congress can re-instate it.
If you help elect me to represent you in Congress, an anti-usury law will be on the Top 10 of items I will submit to the House for legislation.
And, if I am not elected to represent you, I will continue as an individual to cast a bright light on this injustice. As should you.
I will do it frequently and as innovatively as I can. As should you.
I will use creative and guerilla tactics to thwart them, as should you.
I will get as many friends as I can to join me. As should....
It is time to snuff this evil and spirit-destroying foulness and stench.
.

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