Hacker News Reader

Comment by thrill | Hacker News Reader

Let me get this straight - the banks are predatory for agreeing to make loans to a supposedly thinking adults (they are thinking adults, right? - I mean, they're college material ...), but said adults are not the ones at fault for delaying their entry into productive society, and should not be held liable for taking such loans, but those who are productive members of society should have to fess up and pay these predatory bank loans off for these adults.

View on HN

First, college material is only ~25% of society. The banks would cry screaming to their congress-critters if suddenly loans and credit were only allowed to college grads. What's next, only those holding degrees in econ are allowed to receive loans? Second, most folks getting loans by definition won't be college material. Third, there's then a required level of protection from themselves that must be in place in any Decent Society.

In the Randroid Universe, sure, every adult is logical, educated in accounting & finance, has a grasp of the market economy, is not socially nor financially desperate, and possesses enough self-restraint to not ever make such a blunder of a decision and accept a loan that is too big for them to ever pay off.

But here in the real world, we have extensive laws and regulations to stop just that from happening. Why? Because if those laws didn't exist, the banks would just steal everything that isn't nailed down, and turn everyone into a nation of debtors. This isn't the first time it happened in history either—I recommend reading some history about the economics behind the expansion of the rail roads and their collusion with banks in America just around the time of the closing of the Western frontier.

"there's then a required level of protection from themselves that must be in place in any Decent Society"

Bullshit. Strong words to follow.

eh, really, bankruptcy is the single most important "protection" - bankruptcy discourages banks from loaning to people who likely won't be able to pay off those loans, and it allows the high risk folks, the entrepreneurs, to have more than one go at things.

Of course, student loans already subvert those protections, and really, compared to bankruptcy, I don't think the rest of the 'protect (dumb|trusting) people from (predatory banks|themselves)' laws are worth jack.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com