[hchasestevens]

This is an easy statement to make, but I think, empirically speaking, it just doesn't line up with reality. For payday loans, where the terms have historically been in excess of 36%, the vast majority of borrowers:

1. Pay the loan on-time (more than 90%; Community Financial Services Association of America, "About the Payday Industry: Myth vs. Reality.")

2. Do not roll over the loan (same source)

3. Are able, in advance, to accurately predict when they will be able to pay off the loan ( https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/594... )

4. Report having been satisfied with the experience as a whole ( http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.554... )

Furthermore, evidence shows that, on the whole, loans of this nature prevent bankruptcy, foreclosure, bounced checks, and other outcomes ranging from extremely devastating to merely disruptive ( https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5051409_Payday_Holi... ; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1344397 ; https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/economics_articles/104/ ).

I think fortunately/unfortunately, most HN readers won't be familiar with the benefits quick, easy access to capital can have for a person, especially those living on the margins of poverty, where missing one e.g. auto or phone payment can have cascading, long-lasting effects, such as losing a job. The nice thing about our distributed, relatively free-market economy though is that every person can act as an independent agent, analyze their own risk tolerance and ability to make responsible use of the financial products available to them, and make choices leveraging personal information that no centralized authority (or blanket rule, such as "loans with interest above 36% should not be permissible in any circumstance") could possibly have access to.