Being a black neighborhood has nothing to do with economic depression...
I've been in plenty of poor neighborhoods...all of which resemble the "rich suburbs" compared to the ghetto of foreign countries...most notably Middle Eastern countries...
No one forces people to do payday loans...and in order to get out of the toilet you have to realize that sometimes you'll get shit on...it's those who don't celebrate their hardships by accepting government (taxpayer) charity...but rather create THEIR OWN Charity and work hard to accomplish something. Throwing money at poor people will only encourage them to remain poor. That's a fact.
Please reread the sentence. I said, "a predominately Black neighborhood that is economically depressed." There are two distinctions there: a) Black neighborhood and b) economically depressed.
The reason that there are more payday loan institutions in these areas is because people utilize these services more than they do a bank. There is more demand for payday loans than there are banks. So, how do you expect people from these neighborhoods to have investments when so many don't even have bank accounts; not to mention, that half of their checks are already promised away to these payday loans because too many people use them as long term financial solutions.
I absolutely hate the perception that being poor means that you are lazy or stupid. At one time, I worked two full time jobs at the same time. One job was with a factory in which I worked a twelve hour shift. The second was as a receptionist for an academic program. I would work 7pm to 7am, come home to shower, then go to my other job from 9am to 5pm, and run home to get an hour nap. I would do this three to four times out of the week. The factory paid me $6.30 an hour and the other paid me $7.50. I was ineligble for health insurance for both positions; the factory required a six month probationary period and the academic unit considered me a temporary hourly worker. I had to use four paychecks (two weeks pay from both jobs) in order to pay for my rent with the other checks I paid for food, my bills, and my transportation costs while saving for books for when classes started again. I physically collapsed at work because of exhaustion and heat (it was plus 150 degrees inside the factory); I didn't have health insurance so I had to pay for my expenses with two paychecks which threw me behind in my rent and other bills.
I only did this for a summer. There were people at this factory who were working two to three jobs while trying to raise their kids. They made too much to qualify for Medicaid but they certainly didn't make enough to save for investments and many didn't have health insurance. It was a gamble. If you got your arm caught in a machine at work, you paid for the injury, and you risked losing one of your jobs. They definitely weren't lazy people. Neither were they stupid, quite a few of them were full time employees with multiple jobs and full/part time students.
There are millions of people stuck in this purgatory in which they earn too much to qualify for aide but they don't make enough to set aside for that "emergency." These are the people that would be covered by a universal plan.
