I see their presence as a sore sight on South Willow St, a garishly ugly sign shouting in primary colors a false message of hope. But, my fear is that people desperate for help, unsure of where to turn, will see this business (or rather, this scam) as their only means of staying afloat. I find the cash for gold kiosk at the Mall of NH to be a similarly malicious scam.

Just as a side note: Even though I don't comment all that often (mostly because I never know what to say that isn't glaringly obvious and redundant), I really enjoy reading your blog. I like the fact that you put so much passion for Manchester into each post, handcrafting it with such care.

Were this some kind of voluntary arrangement (i.e. not preying) where someone assessed their own needs and determined that their short-term need for money out-weighed their interest in not contracting a high-interest loan from a lender, then this would be a different situation. However the fact that the poor are forced into these arrangements by these (legal) loan sharks and have no choice, makes this an incredibly dangerous bullet that our representative in Concord helped us to dodge.

Even if this were totally voluntary, but we could say that the poor aren't able to make such an assessment about their short and long-term needs, then it would be as if they had no choice. Insufficient capacity to understand the obligation they would be making, a lack of control over their impulses or being otherwise unable to be trusted to asses their financial situation properly would be reason to determine that they couldn't make such a choice.

Since it's self-evident that the poor fall into one of those situations this was clearly a responsible act of wardship on behalf those who cannot be responsible for their own choices, actions or affairs. I'm hopeful that we will see further expansion in this area, because a daunting number of areas where the ability to make incorrect choices remain: fast food for supper, paying rent before health care, having children in poverty, etc.

Eventually after performing all the correct actions (those that are still allowed), they'll be healthy, productive, happy and will have learned all the right choices to make choices for themselves.

oh yeah there is so many chicago too especially urban cities...but most ppl can't get a bank account or aren't informed enough to be able to handle one. I got so fed up with my bank account because of all the extra fees i got charged a 35.00 overdraft fee for overdrafting 5 cents !because the atm said it cost me 2.00 but it really cost 2.50 banks are just as much of crooks as these check cash places (as they call them in memphis in chicago they call them currency exchanges)

Also of note, your Tenessee hometown does not have a single Dunkin' Donuts despite the mass presence of radio advertisements indicated that MIddle Tennessee, Runs On Dunkin'.