'Fringe economy'

Preys on the Poor
by Yolanda Young

You see them along urban thoroughfares and on the corners in poor neighborhoods: check-cashing centers, pawnshops, "payday loan" establishments and rent-to-own furniture stores. This industry comprises what University of Houston professor Howard Karger refers to in his new book as the "fringe economy."

This new phenomenon, according to Shortchanged: Life and Debt in the Fringe Economy, experienced "almost exponential growth during the mid-1990s." In 2001, the "fringe economy" accumulated $78 billion in gross revenue. These fringe businesses make their money off the poor by charging them exorbitant interest rates or bloated or hidden fees because their customers lack good credit, bank accounts or other options.

Today, 53% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and 56 million don't have bank accounts. The robust fringe economy has also come at a time when household debt is increasing rapidly, when many banks are increasing minimum payments, late penalties and interest rates on credit card debt {let's not forget how they have "shortened" the month from 30 days to 25 days! or payment is considered late}, and when bankruptcies, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, skyrocketed more than 400% from 1975 to 2003.

Where once pawn shops were perceived as havens of the thief, gambler or crackhead, and rent-to-own stores were used primarily by college students, today they are frequented by the working poor. Karger notes that the average payday loan customer is a woman ages 24 to 44 with a high school diploma and earning less than $40,000 a year. With such a tight budget, one unexpected event becomes a crisis.

While more consumer discipline is in order, many poor are beyond this point. Stagnant wages {Yet Congress has voted on a pay raise for themselves 7 times in the last decade!!! Yet,they can't be bothered to raise minimum wage for the average worker.} and increased costs of housing, transportation{GASOLINE!!!!!!!} and food are huge contributors to indebtedness.

{These are NOT luxuries. Food, shelter and transportation for work ARE NECESSITIES!!!}

The poor need more protection.

Among the possible steps:

• More government regulation is required in policing shady schemes, inflated interest rates and fees on loans and services, and unfair mortgage lending.
• Mainstream financial institutions should be encouraged to make credit cards more difficult to get and work with customers on ways to pay off their debt.
• Consumer-interest organizations need to help educate the financially illiterate.
{MINIMUM WAGE NEEDS TO BE RAISED TO COUNTER BALANCE THE AFFECTS OF INFLATION.}

Karger likens the hold the fringe industry has on the poor to the grip landowners had on black sharecroppers after slavery. {Never ending cycle of poverty.....they could never get ahead to pay off their debts and be free! It was a form of indentured servitude, without the time limits! Even indentured servants eventually worked off their debts and were free.}

When it comes to exploitive practices, the poor are always the first victims.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For giggles, let's break down my minimum wage job and my expenses....... (I'm a single parent, so no second pay check comes in.)

40 hour week = $206
4 weeks = $824

Rent =$400
Insurance = $80
Electricity =$90 (average: living in the deep south
means I spend more in the summer than the winter and we
still swelter as I won't run the AC very much!)
Gas = $50 (house: gas stove and gas floor heater and we
still tend to freeze as I won't run the gas very much!)
Gasoline to my job 33 miles away=$160 (No, there were
no jobs hiring in my little southern town. It wasn't
any better when I lived up in the Northwestern part of the U.S.)

This adds up to a whopping $780

Ummmmm, sure don't leave much for FOOD. And I have a still growing son who is always hungry.

Neither of us has health insurance. So, anything serious happens, I'm back in debt....or dead.

A blown out tire, an oil change or plate tags is just another expense that is difficult to find the extra cash for. If the car requires repairs....well, I haven't found a mechanic that lets you pay monthly installments.

My little family is not unusual.

Sadly, it has become the NORM.

At this point, 40 acres and a mule looks like heaven.....

~~~~~~~More~~~~~~~

from Agape Press by Allie Martin

...Ted Gandy, president of the outreach called Here's Life Inner City, predicts that more individuals and families will soon be living on the streets of America.

Here's Life Inner City, the urban ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, reaches out to the homeless in large metropolitan areas. Through its work, people without shelter and people living below the poverty line receive physical and spiritual assistance.

Gandy says the need is on the rise due to higher gas prices and harsh weather in some places -- factors that will force many families to make hard choices. {Can't afford gasoline for the commute to work and gas or electric to heat our homes.}

"The one thing about the poor is they're living in such marginal conditions that any change can throw them into a tailspin," the ministry leader notes.

"What we're hearing is that a lot of the poor are having to make decisions as the cold weather comes in, between heat or food.

My expectation is that when they're having to make those types of decisions, there's going to be a certain percentage where the higher cost of everything is going to throw them into a homeless situation."

Unable to pay their bills, these families will face eviction and end up on the street, Gandy explains. Here's Life Inner City is delivering homeless care kits, each including blankets, toiletries, warm gloves, and other essentials to people in 17 major cities.

{I've already determined that if this were to happen to my family, we are headed to the capital of this nation ~~to make a point. Congress and the White House will be forced to see what their policies have created. Run-away gasoline prices, housing, & food costs along with the issue of not raising minimum wage in over a decade. As well as the poor, meager laws [too little, too late] enacted and then the extremely poor record of enforcement of those meager child support laws for families. Along the way, we will gather other families in the same situation.

Although, homelessness is not what it was in the 30's. Not that it was any picnic! But the "hoover" communities, for the most part, banded together to protect and look out for each other as best they could.

Anyone who has been out on the "streets" in recent years, will know it is no longer that way. In fact, it is perilous living out on the streets today. There is a lack of respect for fellow human beings in this day and age~~life is cheap and yours means nothing if you have something worth taking!

Of course, I do maintain my faith that God will provide for us somehow each day. My toes are hanging so far over the cliff's edge, yet I haven't panicked~~if you knew me, you'd know this was a MAJOR life lesson learned, as it is a FIRST!!! By nature, I'm a planner and a saver; but recent years have been difficult and plans have not come to fruition and savings have disappeared.

I know that living in the end times, this is a "normal" situation: Revelation 6: "...a quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and wine!" Whose meaning is quite clear. We will work a full day to be able to buy one quart of wheat or buy three quarts of the cheaper barley. There is no money left over for housing, clothes, or cars! Seems like it is this bad now, but I believe it may literally become this bad.

But the rich will still be able to purchase whatever they desire: wine and oil in the olden days; fancy electric cars today, homes all over the world, abundant food, etc.

They will need to enjoy it while they have it. Because, they too will eventually lose it all...once they receive salvation....or lose their souls...."666" mark of the beast......}


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