> And we don't want to give loans to poor people because that's clearly predatory lending.
Loans are not inherently predatory. Giving loans without interest is a noble thing to do. Of course, many people don't like that, and want to take advantage of the poor, which makes loans with interest predatory.
I spent too much time homeless and listening to well-heeled people spout their hypocritical BS to buy that.
I was actively trying to figure out how to establish an earned income from the street. I was being told I was "panhandling the internet" for trying to monetize my websites. I was not being taken seriously. I was not having scads of charity thrown my way. Etc.
Nearly six years of that has convinced me that when people set these ridiculous high-minded standards it's really code for "Fuck poor people" while sounding virtuous.
If you want to proactively offer interest-free loans to poor people through your church, more power to you. If you want to argue with me on the internet about why making loans available to poor people via the marketplace is bad and mean, sorry, not buying it. If all the good people who spouted nonsense at me while mistreating me while I was homeless had actually done anything at all genuinely helpful, my problems would have been resolved substantially faster.
Loans are not inherently predatory. Giving loans without interest is a noble thing to do. Of course, many people don't like that, and want to take advantage of the poor, which makes loans with interest predatory.