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Showing posts from October, 2018

Is It Right to Believe?

It seems to me that many people don’t know what to believe anymore, at least that’s what they tell me. I’ve also met some recently who think they believe, but don’t know why; that’s apparent from their clichéd responses to my query about the basis of their belief. These two groups concern me, but not nearly as much as those who have simply decided not to believe anymore at all. I’m not talking here about religious beliefs (though what I’ve said clearly applies to many). Rather, I’m talking about beliefs regarding our everyday world in general, but especially about beliefs regarding political discourse, issues, persons, and events. Too many people have become cynical and disillusioned, weary with fatigue and suspicious of politicians and what they say about themselves and their opponents. For others, their belief system is impenetrable and more than adequate in dismissing contrary opinion and disparaging those who hold different views. The clash that occurs when advocates of

The Scandal of Payday Lending

The following article is an expanded version of an op-ed piece published October 3, 2018 in The Gazette in Colorado Springs. The conventional payday loan borrower will take out multiple loans during a year’s time. When you consider that the maximum you can borrow in such a loan is $500, this means the typical borrower could be taking out loans totaling $1,000 or more. But there is absolutely nothing conventional about these loans. Nor does the repayment of these loans follow an economically conventional pattern. Typically, the borrowers are wage-earners who have regular financial obligations that can barely be met by regular income. The paycheck may cover basic predictable expenses, the kind that practically everyone has all the time. But for many payday loan borrowers, there comes an occasion when an unexpected expense occurs that must be met, and there is no discretionary income and thus no flexibility in the distribution of income to include such an expense. Dipping