Quote Originally Posted by HoreTore View Post
The problem is basically solved if the only ones providing irresponsible loans are black market loansharks.

Why it's a radical idea to demand that loan providers are responsible and make sure that the people they are lending money to are actually capable of repaying is quite frankly beyond me.

The people working at a bank have 3+ years of economic education. Of course they know more about how to handle your economy than you do, that's why they work at a bank and are allowed to lend money to people; they are supposed to use that knowledge to help people make sound economic choices, just like a mechanic is there to help you take care of your car.
I'm not an economist, far from it, but I do think you're right that this would certainly help. My instinct is to say that cracking down on all such loans will have some kind of negative impact on the economy, but for the life of me I can't imagine what it would be. So, perhaps that is a good first step. However, I still think the problem will continue until education improves. Maybe I'm just a pessimist about my fellow citizens, but I have difficulty believing that removing such loans alone will make people responsible with their own money. Some people will always spend every cent they get and not save anything for emergencies or retirement, there's no way to change that. Those people will end up in the same place they always do: broke and living off of meager welfare programs. I believe strongly that financial management and budgeting should be a mandatory part of basic public education, starting in middle (primary) school and continuing through high (secondary) school. We already use education to try and keep people physically healthy, we should do so to try and keep them economically healthy as well.