Letters to the Editor: Car-Title Lenders Exploit Working Poor

Car-Title Lenders Exploit Working Poor
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The major premise of Phil Kent's guest Op/Ed column, that a car-title loan is an "honest transaction entered into between two willing parties," one of whom "alters his budget in order to pay back the money in a timely fashion," is either disingenuous or wishful thinking. As he points out, the majority of those who borrow against their car titles do so precisely because they have no other options and are desperate for funds to carry them over until their next paycheck.

These borrowers are usually the working poor, subsisting on hourly wages that don't cover shelter, food, health care, transportation, and child care. Taking out a car-title loan is an act of desperation. The idea that such borrowers can just alter their budgets to repay the loan is the kind of fiction people like Kent promote instead of acknowledging that poverty is built into our economy to ensure a compliant work force. Car-title lenders know they will make money because most borrowers will have to pay interest. Capping the interest this industry can charge would help level the playing field.

I am on the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and support its policy priorities. I worked in public health for county and state health departments for 30 years and know about the lives of the working poor -- their struggles to feed and house themselves and their families on insufficient funds.

I suggest Kent apply his insight and compassion to solving the real struggle facing us -- ensuring work and pay that allows "responsible" budgeting, plus health care, quality education, and child care for all families.

Stephanie Gilmore.
Blacksburg.

As a parent and a teacher, I am very concerned. Some localities have been told there may be vaccine available in November. There is no guarantee and many children might have to go through the winter months unprotected. Scientists and doctors all over the world have known about this virus for months and yet here we are without enough of the vaccine for those in need.

I would hate to imagine the scenario when the government handles all aspects of our medical care. The lesson here is that less involvement equals more efficiency.

Margaret Z. Dellarpia.
Mechanicsville.

Imagine? My generation witnessed the ongoing, disastrous oil spill called World War II when countless tankers were torpedoed off Virginia and the southeast coast by German subs in the area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Beaches were devastated, leaving wide, deep deposits of crude oil in the sand. Thousands of us young parents witnessed in the 1950s our kids playfully digging in sand only to become smeared with that oily residue. One had to be careful where he walked. It was tedious and difficult to clean.

What a difference several generations make. Back then, we weren't concerned about waterfowl and dunes and sea oats, but about the thousands of merchant mariners dying in blazing oil or lost to sharks or hypothermia. We were concerned about our desperately needed home heating oil, industrial and war production, and yes, gasoline. Pipelines didn't exist then. Over time Mother Nature disposed of the whole mess with no help from environmentalists or lawyers. Perhaps if one digs deep enough, there's still some oil left.

This lack of historical knowledge leads one to question the entire letter as Saenz naively states that offshore wind technology could supply more than 200 percent of Virginia's electricity needs in perpetuity. A conference with Virginia Power planners (visit the Chesterfield Power Station or the system operator's office) is needed to estimate how many thousands of windmills that would require -- each a shipping lane collision disaster in waiting.

Calvin T. Lucy.
Midlothian.