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Comment by cratermoon | Hacker News Reader

Payday loan places already do this. It's pure exploitation of the poor.

Payday loan places don't know what you're using the cash for. They just give you a cash advance that you can spend on groceries, rent, drugs, or whatever else you want.

BNPL platforms know what you're spending on, and whether it's a one-time expense that you're spreading out, or a rent/utility payment that's going to come due next month as well.

It's pure exploitation of the poor.

Sure. But two things can be pure exploitation and not be the same thing, with the same incentives and same implications.

Cancer and heart disease are both pure health problems, but insisting on handling them similarly would be a mistake. Not that payday loans and BNPL are that far removed, maybe more like liver failure and kidney failure.

If you have to take a loan to buy food or medicine, you are already at the bottom. Because you need to repay the loan with an interest next month, and you will have even less money left.

I'm sure the BNPL platforms are ensuring the information about who is borrowing money to buy what is kept private and not shared with every data broker on the planet. /s

I wish we'd go back to calling these companies "predatory lenders" instead of "payday loan" or BNPL providers.

Special hell for the ones that incorporate or partner with Native Nations to try to avoid usury law.

(And also, though I don't begrudge them much, also, a special hell for those who offer this up to companies for a cut).

There’s something in that about the nature of predators - you don’t actually get mad at the wolf for eating the chicken, it’s what the wolf does, just like eating the worm is what the chicken does and eating your garden fruit is what the deer do. You don’t get mad at the wolf, you either build a fence or you kill the wolf.

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