"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." (1st Timothy 6:10 a)

I was watching a television show on PBS called Now earlier today. The show was dedicated to predatory lending by companies providing student loans. I will not mention the name of the company that was on the hot-seat. However, I will clue you in that it was a company that used to be a government entity until 1997 and is now privatized but paid for the purchase of the name. So, I will have to let you figure out who it is.

The show featured a single mom of a child about five years old. She took out student loans to make it through college. After losing her job as a social worker, she became unable to make payments on her student loans. After much pressure from the lenders of her student loans due to ridiculous repayment expectations to get back in good standing with them, she stopped paying rent so that she could pay student loans. Eventually, both herself and her young daughter was evicted from her home.

The companies that were involved had no mercy and neither did this young single mother's landlord. The collectors called at all hours of the night and day. Sadly, the real loser in all of this was the (approximately) 5 year old daughter. But hey, the money is worth it, right? It's better that someone makes a nice profit at the expense of children like these???

The love of money truly is the root of all evil. All of those that love money make the dollar their God. They serve money and will do anything to get it. It should be morally objectionable for anyone to be in business with the objective of placing a sinkhole of debt on those that it is supposed to be serving. However, this is precisely what is happening on a widespread scale today in the American financial sector. And to the landlord who would evict in such circumstances, shame on you.

The bottom line is that we need to get back to the basics of serving people in business. Instead, it seems that many businesses are looking to make those that they are supposed to serve indebted servants who are bound to their respective company. Borrowers beware as truly the borrower is servant to the lender.

-Todd

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/525/index.html