Corporations sucking lifeblood out of working poor

[One Sweet World]

Business Week has a great cover story this week: The Poverty Business -
Inside U.S. companies' audacious drive to extract more profits from the nation's working poor Bush and company have turned a blind eye to corporations who target the working poor.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035001.htm

In recent years, a range of businesses have made financing more readily available to even the riskiest of borrowers. Greater access to credit has put cars, computers, credit cards, and even homes within reach for many more of the working poor. But this remaking of the marketplace for low-income consumers has a dark side: Innovative and zealous firms have lured unsophisticated shoppers by the hundreds of thousands into a thicket of debt from which many never emerge...

Terms of the Tribute MasterCard are a world away from the money-back and frequent-flier offers familiar to more prosperous cardholders. Marketed by Atlanta-based CompuCredit, a giant in the subprime card business, Tribute MasterCard offers no such fringe benefits. Rose Ajuria's card carries an interest rate of 28%, compared with about 10% on a typical card. Since she's paying only a nominal $10 a month, the debt her niece incurred is growing swiftly. "I think we've painted ourselves into a corner," Rose says. Many Tribute MasterCard customers pay a lower 20% interest, but CompuCredit typically charges them a $150 annual fee, a separate $6 monthly fee, and a one-time payment of $20 required before using the card.

The working poor gets socked the most. They could really benefit from these rewards yet they are paying for the rewards and helping credit cards profit. It's unfortunate that the credit card companies are slapping in your face fees, like annual fees, and hidden fees, like interchange, on these folks so they can reap huge profits.

[Double T]

1. Predatory credit card divisions of unscrupulous banks...........

along with unethical lenders need to be stopped through stiff legislation that protects consumers and borrowers from being blatantly screwed. Congress talks about doing something but never follows through with ANYTHING helpful or meaningful, as our legislators are bought and paid for by these corporate criminals. After the 2008 elections, it is time to get results on this legislation from our NEW super majority Democratic Representatives, Senators and President.

[LiberalArkie]

2. I think I may have missed the news, but wasn't the congress going to

roll back the new Bush banking laws like the bankruptcy thing?

[One Sweet World]

3. Not sure

but I know there's been a couple of hearings in the house and senate on credit card industry policies and practices. Dodd and Levin have been leading the way. Just hope they follow through.

[leftofthedial]

4. Corporations are sucking the lifeblood out of pretty much everything

the planet

democracy

the country

our government

the middle class

the working class

the poor


corporatism is pathological. it is a cancer that has metastisized and is devouring its host--us and our planet.