The Center for Responsible Lending is a group against predatory lending that is fixated with banning payday loans. The idea of such an organization is a good one, but what about a Center for Responsible Borrowing? Oddly enough, a Google search of this term brings up the Center for Responsible Lending as the first search result.

The website for CRL is just classic. They say their research shows that payday loans are designed to keep people in debt, not provide one time assistance. But then they quote their own research as showing that borrowers who receive five or more loans a year account for over 90% of a payday lender's business.

So are we to understand that these loan shars, these predators, these evil payday lenders are only making 10% of their business from people getting 4 loans or less in a year? What about all this business from the borrower who is perpetually in debt? Isn't that how these terrible establishments make all their money? Guess not...

They then go on to say that payday loans cost Americans $4.2 billion in fees each year. The last figure I saw from the New York Times had payday loans reaching a total of $28 billion per year. So borrowers pay exactly 15% of their loan in fees.

That means if I borrow $100, I will pay back $115. But what about these 400% annual percentage rates! Aren't they just so completely unacceptable? Turns out it is easier to measure the length of a staple in millimeters than miles; meaning, why measure the interest rate of a two week loan in years?

Of course 400% APR sounds like a lot, but when you're dealing with two weeks instead of fifty two weeks, it makes a difference. You would think a group that focuses entirely on lending would understand that one...

My favorite are their poster child borrowers. Earl Millford, for example, appeared in the New York Times. Each month he had to travel 30 miles to 16 different payday lenders to pay off interest alone! What a terrible tragedy!

One- why on God's green earth did someone get SIXTEEN payday loans before paying off the first! Two- rollover laws prevent lenders from charging interest after 12 weeks. After that, all payments count toward principal. Three- SIXTEEN different loans....unbelievable. You don't ban payday lenders from lending, you ban people like this from borrowing!

If we had a Center for Responsible Borrowing, perhaps people like Millford would have known better. Perhaps they would have understood that you pay off a loan before you get another one. Perhaps thousands of people in payday loan debt across the country wouldn't be if they had just known to borrow less.

But no, CFL insists on regulating payday lenders out of business. Why? To protect people, of course. Because it is the government's job to protect us all from any possible potentially stupid thing we could ever do...like borrowing way more than we should.

People die in car crashes, do we ban automobiles? People drown in water, do we ban boating? People die from dog attacks, do we ban dog ownership? The whole idea that banning payday loans is to protect people is totally bogus.

Payday loans, like cars, help people out. Most people use them responsibly. Yes, like cars, they have the capacity to be abused and misused. They are capable of doing harm and good. But let's be honest- banks and credit unions wnat payday loans banned so that they can compete in the short-term loan market.

So just say no to a ban on payday loans. Let's educate people about their options, not limit them.