Dollars and Sense

Financial Predators Part 1

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Ryan Mack

Home

Series Code: DAS

Program Code: DAS000013S


00:27 Hi, welcome to Dollars and Sense.
00:29 I'm Yvonne Lewis, your co-host for this program.
00:32 And our primary host is Ryan Mack, a Financial Literacy
00:37 expert, and just a great brother in the Lord.
00:40 Ryan, it's so good to have you on this program.
00:43 Thank you for having me here.
00:45 As always, this series has been so fun.
00:46 We've been going into a lot of different areas of the
00:48 Bible and the word.
00:50 And I just hope the people out there receive it well.
00:53 Me too, me too! And the topics are so relevant.
00:56 And today's topic of financial predators;
00:59 that's going to be the bomb.
01:00 I mean it absolutely; you're right about it.
01:03 I mean this is one of the topics I've been passionate
01:06 about for many years.
01:07 And I remember that I was always, when I was on CNN,
01:12 and they would always call me to essentially address what
01:16 these prepaid debit cards, or the RushCards, and the negative
01:20 things that were about them.
01:22 And they really do take advantage of a lot of people.
01:26 And so we have a Scripture here today that I think we'll really
01:29 set the tone for what we can do about them.
01:33 I mean we see them all on street corners every day,
01:35 and we're going to walk down a neighborhood street,
01:37 and we're going to look at the different stores virtually
01:40 through this show today.
01:41 But I think Hosea 4:6 really brings it home when it says:
01:56 I mean that to me really exemplifies the entire crux of
02:03 how these financial predators, this
02:05 360 billion dollar industry. Wow!
02:08 And they're making more and more money every year off the backs
02:12 of exploiting poor people.
02:13 Off the poor! 360 billion dollars from poor people!
02:18 Absolutely. What they're doing is they are, they look,
02:22 and you know what, whether you are in rural America,
02:25 or Appalachia, or whether you're in urban America,
02:29 or you're outside of veteran bases.
02:31 You know, this is not a black, or brown, or a white thing.
02:34 This is a green thing.
02:35 They are attacking those areas that they feel are the most
02:39 vulnerable to being exploited.
02:43 I mean I remember sometimes I would be watching BET
02:46 and I'd say, You know what, I see this RushCard,
02:48 and I see the BET control card.
02:51 These are prepaid debit cards.
02:52 And we'll explain what they are in a second.
02:54 But then I would see maybe they're attacking the minority
02:58 and the people of color community.
03:00 I said, Well, wait!
03:01 And then I would see Troy Aikman, and Hulk Hogan
03:03 for Rent to Own stores.
03:05 I said, Wow! Then I would see George Lopez
03:08 with the Mango card.
03:10 And I would see Justin Beaver with the Believer card.
03:12 Then I would see Suze Orman with the Approved card.
03:15 Then I would see Tom Jordan with the REACH card.
03:17 Or, I think, Little Wayne had a Ratchet card.
03:22 I don't know, I don't know...
03:23 A ratchet card!... but it was...
03:25 I don't know the name of it, but they're just,
03:28 they're coming all over.
03:29 And they don't care about your race, or your color.
03:32 They just care about the green.
03:34 And they're coming, they're coming hard.
03:36 And you know what? It's interesting
03:38 because marketing is key. Yes.
03:40 And the way it's marketed, it's like this is so great for you.
03:44 Just get this card, and you can get whatever you want. Yes.
03:48 And the thought of having to pay it back, or pay it back plus
03:51 something, nobody's thinking like that.
03:54 They're just thinking, I've got this card.
03:56 I want to go shopping. Right.
03:57 I'm going to buy whatever I want. Boom!
03:59 And you know, a lot of individuals, when they get these
04:01 products they defend them to the hilt.
04:03 And the bottom line is that...
04:06 And I've interviewed a lot of people just asking them,
04:08 Why do you use this particular establishment?
04:11 What's the value behind it?
04:13 What's, what do you think is?
04:14 Why is this RushCard so valuable to you?
04:17 And do you not know that there are other alternatives?
04:20 And they say, Well, no, this is all I know.
04:22 This is all I know.
04:24 All I know is this check cashing facility.
04:26 All I know is a Payday loan if I'm short on money.
04:29 All I know is the pawn shop to help get me by.
04:31 All I know is this prepaid debit card that makes me spend money
04:35 to use my own money.
04:36 This is all they know.
04:38 So, again, My people are destroyed
04:39 for lack of knowledge.
04:40 What's happening is that, in our communities, is that as
04:44 this 360 billion dollar industry becomes big and bigger,
04:47 these stores move into our communities and they have a
04:51 vested interest in keeping people poor.
04:53 They have a vested interest in having a perpetual
04:56 underclass of our economies.
04:59 And as long as the indivuals are poor they can make money.
05:02 They can make more money, because it's
05:04 expensive to be poor.
05:05 Because all of these fees, and the lack of opportunity,
05:09 the lack of upward mobility, the lack of upward movement,
05:11 if you've got a bank account that means you're
05:14 establishing your credit.
05:15 That means that if you've got more wealth the bank wants
05:18 you to make more money.
05:20 They want you to move up the ladder of success.
05:22 Because as long as you bank with them then you'll be levy to say,
05:26 Hey, here are all these other banking
05:27 products that you can use.
05:29 And as long as you are moving up the ladder, than we have a
05:34 vested interest in seeing you be successful.
05:35 But the financial creditors had a vested interest in saying,
05:39 We don't want you to improve your credit.
05:40 We don't want you to budget.
05:41 We don't want you to do anything.
05:44 So I have a list of these financial predators that I've
05:47 pointed out in our communities, and would love to go
05:50 down them one by one. Yeah, lets!
05:52 So we're walking down the street and we're in urban
05:56 America, or Appalachia, or rural America,
05:59 or outside a Veteran base.
06:02 What's one of the first things we see
06:04 is this check cashing facility.
06:06 Now this check cash facility, again,
06:09 prays upon what we don't know.
06:11 They hope that you don't know that you can
06:14 open up a bank account.
06:16 They hope that you don't know that you can repair your credit.
06:18 They hope that you don't know that they're going to be
06:21 charging you between 1 to 5 percent of your own money
06:23 just to cash your own money.
06:25 And I've seen people cash checks, as I had one individual
06:28 that we worked with.
06:29 She had actually cashed a check for a home owners loan,
06:34 home equity line of loan.
06:37 And she got that check and it was for upwards of over
06:40 $15,000 for a fee that she paid.
06:43 A fee that she paid! The fee?
06:46 The fee was over $15,000.
06:49 Because the check was almost in the, almost $80 to $90,000.
06:52 But they charged an exorbitant fee because they wanted to make
06:55 sure that the check was real.
06:57 They didn't know if it was real or not, so they charged
06:58 an exorbitant fee, and she paid it. And she paid it!
07:02 And now this check cashing facility.
07:05 In one store in Detroit we were working with a bank
07:10 and one of their customers was a grocery store.
07:13 And this bank estimated that this grocery store,
07:17 because of check cashing, is earning a half a million dollars
07:21 a year in fees alone. Wow!
07:23 Not including produce, none of that, just fees.
07:25 Just fees! Okay, so how does it work, alright?
07:28 For those of us who've never used a check cashing place.
07:30 How does it work?
07:32 Well, you have a job. Right.
07:33 You don't have a bank account. Right.
07:35 You get paid. They have to cut you a check.
07:37 They cut the check to your name.
07:38 You get the check. You can't cash it because you don't
07:40 have a bank account.
07:42 So you go to the check cashing place.
07:43 So they charge a fee for the convenience of you cashing the
07:46 check at the check cashing place.
07:48 Now the thing to this is that I've asked, and we've done many
07:51 focus groups, and polls, and we've asked many people,
07:54 Why do you use this check cashing place?
07:57 And what... it's always; they all say the same thing.
08:01 That I just don't know anything else.
08:04 The liquor store is right up the street.
08:06 The Lottery store, when many times they have check cashing
08:11 in Lotto mix time.
08:12 We're going to talk about Lotto on the second as well.
08:14 The checkout is right up the street.
08:15 There's this, there's a grocery store that's right there.
08:19 It's convenience. It's nothing more than convenience.
08:21 And they don't know any better.
08:23 So what happens? Again, because you have to cash your check
08:25 at this check cashing place, you don't have a banking account.
08:28 You want to buy a house?
08:30 Well, how are you going to unless you buy a house in cash?
08:32 Because you're not going to be able to get a loan,
08:33 because you don't have a bank account.
08:35 You're not bankable.
08:36 You're not improving your credit.
08:37 You ever going to get a business loan and start a business,
08:39 and leverage, and do what individuals in wealthy
08:42 communities will do?
08:43 They take out leverage so they can...
08:44 All these things are not available to you.
08:47 You are in a perpetual under class because now you have to
08:50 spend money to use your own money,
08:52 which is the epitome of nonsense.
08:54 And it's a useless, pointless product.
08:58 But they've taught us, and negatively taught us,
09:04 and influenced us to say that there is no other way but
09:07 to use this product.
09:08 Because you're not good enough to get your own bank account.
09:10 So essentially, Ryan, if you're giving me, you're paying me
09:16 a hundred dollars, then like what percentage of that
09:19 would the check out?
09:20 It would take five dollars.
09:21 Five! So I might as well take five dollars from that
09:24 and just rip it up.
09:25 Rip it up. It's gone.
09:27 Because that's the equivalent of what I'm doing at a
09:30 check cashing place.
09:32 This is why it's expensive to be poor.
09:33 You, if you saw a check cashing facility, would you consider
09:38 this to be a neighborhood in Beverly Hills? No.
09:41 Because they know that that's not their market.
09:43 But when they're outside of a Veteran base,
09:45 outside in Appalachia, and urban America, rural America,
09:50 these places are the places where you know what,
09:53 we're going to look for those places with the lowest credit
09:55 scores, the highest poverty rates, maybe having
09:59 some high crime areas.
10:00 Because we'll just put a glass, we'll put some glass up,
10:02 as long as we can take their money.
10:03 It doesn't matter about the lack of safety.
10:05 You know, I just want their money.
10:06 And this is the mindset that they have.
10:08 And they have an invested interest.
10:10 If that person improves their credit, gets a bank account,
10:13 and starts accumulating wealth, they've lost a customer.
10:15 So, of course, they've got to perpetuate that their product
10:18 is the only way, and is actually a good product.
10:20 And they're going to consider they're doing a good service.
10:22 Just as the rest of these financial predators
10:23 will say the same thing.
10:25 They're doing a good service, in their mind, to the community.
10:27 They have to say that because they have a vested interest
10:29 in keeping people poor.
10:30 Uh hum. Wow, that's amazing! and it's something that we know
10:34 And it's something that we know people are using all the time.
10:39 All the time. All the time. All the time.
10:41 And so the next one that we have here is the payday loan.
10:44 Now the payday loan, I've seen Montel Williams
10:47 advertising these on air.
10:49 And so a lot of times what they'll do is we'll discuss.
10:52 They'll use these celebrities, these stars, and they'll say,
10:57 Oh, Montel Williams, he was a, I think, I believe he was a
11:00 Navy, and, you know, Montel get out of my way!
11:03 Get him out to the Williams show.
11:04 Well, Alli, well, he's a trusted man.
11:06 And, you know, we trust Montel Williams.
11:08 Well, what does the word say?
11:10 Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, right?
11:12 So we're trusting in this man.
11:14 We're trusting that this person does;
11:16 is going to do well for us.
11:18 So we follow this person.
11:20 So the payday loans, they'll charge with.
11:22 You go to the loan and you say, You know what?
11:23 I'm running a little bit short on cash.
11:26 They'll say, Well, it doesn't matter if you're
11:27 running short on cash.
11:29 Come on in here and we'll give you a loan.
11:31 We'll give you some money.
11:32 We'll float you till the next week.
11:33 You're living check to Tuesday.
11:35 We'll float you some money to live the rest of the week
11:37 until your next check, until your next payday.
11:39 So that person goes in and gets the loan out, not knowing that
11:43 that person is being charged, between fees and interest,
11:45 2 to 300 percent interest rate on that loan.
11:48 Oh! 2 to 300 percent!
11:49 Absolutely! Absolutely!
11:51 And they're doing it, and they're doing at Gold's,
11:54 and all these Gold shops, you know.
11:56 And see this is why we have to come back to Christ, right?
12:00 Because they're playing on what the world thinks is important.
12:07 Right? Gold stores, pawn shops, you know, the Gold stores that
12:11 are popping up in neighborhoods everywhere.
12:13 Why? Because they recognize that if a lot individuals
12:16 want that shiny object.
12:18 They want that, Oh, wow, can I have that watch?
12:21 Or I've got to have that jewelry.
12:22 I've got to have that ring.
12:24 And have all these things that are meaningless.
12:26 They're worthless. But all of a sudden they run out of money.
12:29 They have to pawn them.
12:30 So the Gold stores are popping up so the people can pawn their
12:33 jewelry, and they can capitalize off of individuals buying
12:36 jewelry that they couldn't afford in the first place,
12:38 get the jewelry, and then pawn it back to individuals.
12:40 And it's perpetuating poverty.
12:42 So wait, the Gold store is a store that sells gold and then
12:46 also they can pawn it? Absolutely!
12:49 Oh! Absolutely! They sell it because it's a shiny object.
12:52 Right. They know that individuals in poverished
12:54 communities, sometimes when you have a level of individuals who
12:59 have not had a lot of capital, have not had a lot of money,
13:02 who are poor, they might be a little insecure.
13:05 So they attached themselves onto these items:
13:08 this gold, these brand name clothes.
13:13 Or, you know, these shiny things, this jewelry.
13:15 And so they say, You know, what I am now defined by what
13:18 I'm wearing, as opposed to what Christ has put inside of me.
13:22 I'm now defined by what I'm wearing.
13:23 So they'll buy it, and they can't afford it.
13:25 But they know full well that's why they put the Gold store
13:27 there, that those individuals are going to
13:29 eventually have to pawn it.
13:31 So when they have to pawn it, they'll buy it back at a cheaper
13:34 rate, and it's a circulate.
13:35 And then when that person can finally get the money to get
13:37 it out of pawn, they're going to sell it back to them.
13:39 So they're not only buying the jewelry, but then they're making
13:43 more, they have to continue to buy it over, and over, and over
13:46 again until they finally lose it, and then that gold,
13:48 that ring or whatever is sold to somebody else,
13:50 and it goes right back into the circle again.
13:52 This is what they're doing in our communities.
13:55 They are praying upon the worldly desires of us to have to
13:58 get rich, of us to have an image that fits with what the world
14:02 thinks is appropriate, and what we're supposed to do
14:04 that we can't afford. Right.
14:06 And we can't afford this lifestyle.
14:08 The next thing we have to go back to the pay-day loan and get
14:11 additional money out, pay the 200 to 300 per cent
14:13 interest rate, and the next one we have here is the pawn shop.
14:16 Now story: I walk into one of the largest
14:20 pawn shops in Detroit.
14:22 Now I actually reached out to them for partnership because
14:24 I figured, I said, Listen, I want to work with you all.
14:27 Because the people that you're serving are the people that
14:30 I want to educate.
14:31 So is there something that we can do,
14:32 that I can educate your people?
14:35 I'm laughing because I don't think a pawn shop wants
14:38 to work with you, because you're going to be teaching
14:40 people not to pawn their stuff.
14:41 I told them. I told them that.
14:43 I said, Look, I think it would be good for community morale.
14:46 And they actually let me do a couple of workshops
14:48 in the pawn shop. Really?
14:50 They sure did! I did a couple of workshops in the pawn shop,
14:53 and educated them about credit, and budgeting.
14:55 And I was very candid about my goal was to make sure these
14:58 individuals who come in here don't have to keep
15:00 continuing, tends to come in here.
15:02 And so they took me on a tour of this pawn shop.
15:05 They took me in the back room.
15:06 It was a huge facility.
15:08 And I saw these fur coats.
15:12 I said, What are these fur coats?
15:13 Well, this is the gig.
15:16 The people who are mostly poor will buy these fur coats.
15:21 Because you have to have a fur coat, right?
15:23 Because that defines you.
15:24 Again, worldly standards allow you to define you,
15:27 as opposed to what Christ has given you. Right.
15:29 Worldly standards are now defining you.
15:30 So you have to have this fur coat.
15:32 You buy the fur coat in the fall.
15:33 You wear it in the winter.
15:35 You pawn it in the spring.
15:37 You pay fees on it throughout the summer.
15:40 You take it out in the fall.
15:41 And it goes on and on.
15:43 It's an endless cycle that individuals who are
15:46 impoverished, who have to attach themselves to this worldly item,
15:50 now are continuously paying on this worldly item,
15:53 henceforth making that worldly item even more and more pricey
15:56 to those who can't afford it in the first place. Right.
15:58 There are televisions in there.
16:00 There was this one television I saw in there it was in there
16:03 for over four years.
16:05 I calculated the fees, that the fees on that television alone
16:09 was worth more, almost twice as much
16:11 than the television itself to buy brand new.
16:14 Let me just ask you this, Ryan, because I have
16:16 never pawned anything. Right.
16:18 I don't know how that works either.
16:19 I'm ignorant as far as that's concerned.
16:22 I learned a lot walking through that store, I'll tell you.
16:25 I would believe it.
16:26 So you take an item to the store, and you're kind of
16:31 selling it to the store?
16:33 Well, essentially you have an item, and let's just say you
16:35 have a shirt or whatever.
16:38 And this shirt... No, a television.
16:41 So this television you might have bought for $300.
16:45 And now you have... You've been light on funds.
16:48 So essentially you take this item to the pawn shop and they
16:53 might say, What's it worth?
16:55 We'll give you $50 just to hold it.
17:00 And then if you can't you have to make payments on it.
17:05 And then you have to make payments on it
17:08 over and over again.
17:09 To pay back what they gave you for it or?
17:12 They're holding it in storage now. I see.
17:14 They're holding it now. Okay.
17:16 And so they're giving you a loan against this television.
17:20 Right? And so don't mean the loan, I'd say might not be $50,
17:23 but it might be as much as $150 maybe $200, but it's never going
17:26 to be as much as the TV is actually worth.
17:29 Because they're going to want to make sure they, if they have to,
17:32 turn around and sell it and make a profit.
17:33 So they're never going to give you what it's really worth.
17:36 So they might give you this loan for $50, $100, maybe $150,
17:40 or what have you, and then now you have this $150 that you take
17:43 and you pay towards your rent, or whatever it is.
17:45 But you have to pay that money back.
17:47 So over time after you pay that money back, eventually maybe you
17:51 you get your, you get your paycheck.
17:52 And you come back and you get, you pay the money back.
17:54 You owe that plus interest.
17:56 And interest is usually around, at least in Michigan
17:58 where I live, around 3%.
18:00 And they capped it at 3% per month.
18:03 So it's not 3% a year.
18:05 They say, Well, it's actually pretty low.
18:06 No, that's 3% times 12, which is 36% interest rate.
18:10 Wow! Because every month?
18:12 Every month it's 3%, yeah.
18:14 3% added to the previous 3%?
18:16 Yes. And now there are different laws in different states.
18:19 In Michigan they've capped it out at 3%.
18:21 In many of the states they've actually allowed that to
18:23 go even a lot higher.
18:25 There was legislation that they tried to propose to,
18:27 and now get this, this is very intriguing to me.
18:30 They proposed legislation to raise the level of interest rate
18:35 up from what pawn shops can actually charge.
18:38 Now there were a few pawn shops that were the big ones
18:41 actually opposed them being able to raise the interest rate.
18:45 Now you would say that's the contrary to
18:47 actually be making money.
18:48 Well, no, because what happens is this: they're banking on the
18:51 fact that they don't want to gouge their customers.
18:54 They want their customer to be a repeat customer.
18:57 And this is verbatim of what they were saying.
18:59 They want their customers to be repeat customers.
19:02 Because as long as they continue to come back they can continue
19:04 to make that residual income from their individuals.
19:07 So they don't want to gouge them out to make sure that,
19:09 to make John or Susan so strapped for cash that they
19:13 can't afford to continue to come back. Right.
19:15 They want them to come back.
19:16 They want them to pawn more items; come back so they can
19:18 continue to make them collect that interest rate from these
19:21 individuals over time.
19:23 And that is the way they sustain their business.
19:25 It's a multi-million dollar business model based upon
19:27 the fact that we are not budgeting, we're not improving
19:31 our credit to make sure that we can get legitimate loans,
19:33 and we're buying things that we can't afford. Right.
19:36 So all of these things are Scriptural.
19:38 And if we just follow the Scripture all these things
19:42 would be closed down.
19:44 I mean the next item that we have here is the
19:46 refund anticipation loan, RAL.
19:48 Now every tax season this is something else, right? Uh huh.
19:53 This is funny to me because in many you have the, you know,
19:59 many different tax firms and what not.
20:01 They'll charge these refunds.
20:03 They call them Rapid Refi.
20:04 And they'll say you can get your money right away.
20:07 And that sounds really good. Right.
20:09 Oh, you know, I can get my money right away.
20:10 But what they're not telling you is that if you get your rate
20:14 refund anticipation loan you go in there and let's just say you
20:18 get an estimate tax return of a thousand dollars.
20:22 That's an estimate, or a guesstiment.
20:24 They're guessing how much return you're going to get from looking
20:28 at your paperwork. Right.
20:29 So they say, Here's a thousand dollars right now.
20:33 You can have it and you can walk out the door
20:34 with that thousand dollars.
20:35 Sounds like a good deal.
20:37 So many individuals say, Sure, I'll take it right now.
20:38 I'd rather have my money now than later.
20:40 They're not saying it's also attached to fees,
20:43 it's also attached to interest to the tune of almost 4 to 500%.
20:46 In many, sometimes to almost 300%, but sometimes
20:50 as much as 4 to 500%.
20:51 I've actually seen.
20:52 How can that be legal, and who?
20:55 See, this is what blows me away.
20:57 Because we put politicians into office to protect our interests.
21:02 Right. Whose interest is that; 4 to 500%?
21:07 They do have these things called usury laws
21:08 that are on the books.
21:10 But many politicians don't follow the usury laws,
21:12 because a lot of the biggest lobbying firms are those
21:14 individuals who are these payday loans, cash advances.
21:18 And these individuals, who many individuals who used to be
21:21 in office, when they left office went to work for these
21:25 institutions making all this capital that they were
21:27 exploiting individuals who are poor.
21:29 So it's a circle, it's a circle.
21:31 So for those individuals who are using check cashing,
21:35 obviously the solution is to get a bank account.
21:37 For those individuals who are using the payday loans,
21:40 we have to learn how to budget effectively.
21:42 For those individuals who are using a refund anticipation
21:45 loan, we have to understand the beautiful thing
21:48 about electronic deposit.
21:49 And the beautiful... Now what that means is this: there's,
21:52 they didn't, for that individual who got that thousand
21:55 dollar loan, real story.
21:57 Someone got a thousand dollar loan, or Rapid Refi.
22:00 Got the money, then she got her actual tax return for $500.
22:06 So it wasn't $1000.
22:07 It was only $500, because remember it was a guesstament.
22:10 It wasn't the actual thing.
22:11 So she got a $500 loan, no $500 tax return.
22:14 She goes in and says, Okay, well, I spent my money
22:18 and here I'm trying to get it back.
22:20 Well, you actually owe $1300 now.
22:22 You know, because at that particular firm
22:24 it was a 300% interest rate, and the fees
22:26 had already tacked up.
22:27 Well, you owe us $1300.
22:28 Well, I don't have the money.
22:30 I only got $500. What am I supposed to do?
22:32 Well you're on the hook.
22:33 I don't know what, but you have to pay it back.
22:35 Now she's in the cycle.
22:36 She's in the cycle and you have to pay off as much as you can,
22:39 and whenever you can.
22:41 But that tally is always going.
22:43 It's always going, and it keeps you...
22:45 The number one thing that keeps payday loans and refundages
22:48 to patient loans and business is returning customers.
22:51 They are banking on the fact that you cannot pay that
22:53 entire amount back.
22:55 Because they want you to come back and continue them,
22:56 and pawn shops as well.
22:57 They want you to keep continuing to pay for this
23:00 additional amount of money.
23:02 How? That is so stressful.
23:04 Like, first of all, you have to read the fine print. Absolutely.
23:09 Right? Because you're signing something that's saying,
23:11 or I'm going to pay you back plus 3, 4, 500 times interest?
23:17 Yep, exactly. I can't even...
23:18 I had a friend that did something similar.
23:21 Uh huh. Needed some extra money.
23:23 Did that and got... They charged him so much for interest that he
23:31 can't get out from under it.
23:32 It's just... it, you can't get out.
23:35 This is what, what ails me, what gets me so frustrated
23:40 is that we continue to use these stores.
23:42 And many individuals get mad about these stores,
23:44 but they refuse to do the things that are necessary to help.
23:48 If they don't, if you learn, if you already know the
23:51 principles yourself, then educate someone else about
23:53 how they can use the principles.
23:54 Because the bottom line is I can't keep getting mad at the
23:57 shark for coming after me if I keep cutting myself
24:00 and jumping in the ocean.
24:01 A shark is going to always come around.
24:03 They're attracted to blood. Right.
24:05 This is what they do. Right.
24:06 If we stop cutting ourselves it's from an ocean.
24:08 Then they're not coming after us.
24:10 And then we can talk about the Lottery tickets.
24:12 Lotto, Lotto is a 70 billion dollar industry,
24:15 billion dollar industry. Billion!
24:17 There is one zip code in the south side of Chicago,
24:20 one zip code that spends over 23 million dollars a year
24:23 just on Lotto tickets.
24:24 In the south side? That's one of the poorest sections.
24:28 Yes, one zip code. 23 million dollars a year on the
24:32 south side of Chicago.
24:33 There, and now on an average, each adult in America
24:36 spends $300 a year.
24:37 Now there's a positive coorelation between the amount
24:40 of money spent on Lotto tickets, and poverty rate.
24:43 So the deeper you are in poverty, the more you
24:46 spend on Lotto tickets.
24:47 On average an individual earning $13,000 or less,
24:50 almost spends between 9 and 10% of their total income
24:54 on Lottery tickets on average.
24:56 So $13,000 would be $13 hundred for them on Lotto tickets.
25:02 Yes, on average, and on across the country.
25:04 So you, what's happening now is this is why we need Christ.
25:08 Because people are more dependent on luck.
25:12 They look towards luck more so than what God has given
25:17 them to be successful.
25:19 So as long as you're looking towards luck,
25:21 and every time they do that scratch off, which is liable to
25:23 return with a Lotto ticket about 67 cents.
25:25 For every dollar you spend you get 67 cents.
25:28 So you're losing 33 cents every time you spend a dollar on
25:30 a Lotto ticket on average.
25:31 So they're scratching that Lotto ticket.
25:33 They're doing that, and they're banking on
25:35 the fact that they can win.
25:36 So, and then lastly, on line scams.
25:39 You have to talk about that briefly.
25:41 The bottom line is this.
25:43 I want to just give some tips.
25:44 And I want to talk directly to the people.
25:46 Because our Lottery is just... You all, people are getting
25:48 all these scams, this Western Union scams. Listen:
26:19 If we just used those four tips than all this fraudulent stuff
26:23 this scam, all this stuff, will be null and void.
26:26 This is so rich. I wish we could do another part.
26:30 I'm serious, because there's so much going on with this.
26:35 But you have a take away for us.
26:37 Absolutely! Let's go talk about it.
26:38 Yeah, for real. Uh huh.
26:47 Proverbs 4:13 says, Keep hold of instruction.
26:50 Do not let go. Guard her for she is your life.
26:53 What is the most precious commodity in our communities?
26:55 Many will say it's money, or perhaps time.
26:57 Unfortunately, for those who exploit poor people,
27:00 ignorance is the most precious commodity.
27:02 I'm ignorant of many things.
27:04 I couldn't tell you how a rocket flies,
27:05 or how to build a car engine.
27:07 However, when it comes to knowledge about important
27:09 issues that can improve our economic standing,
27:11 there is nothing wrong with being ignorant,
27:13 but there is something wrong with staying ignorant.
27:15 So what truly is the most precious commodity
27:17 in our communities?
27:18 It certainly isn't ignorance.
27:20 It is love. The Bible states our love must not be a thing of
27:22 words and fine talk, but must be a thing of action and sincerity.
27:26 1 John 3:18, We say we love our community, but if our actions
27:30 were in line with what we were saying,
27:31 than these establishments wouldn't be
27:33 allowed to exploit us.
27:34 Our communities are stronger, smarter, and better than what
27:37 these predators perceive us to be.
27:39 So let's take action.
27:40 Stop using these establishments.
27:42 Improve your credit.
27:43 Open bank accounts.
27:44 And you will see them start to shut down without even
27:46 a need for a protest.
27:48 As always, if we at Dollars & Sense can help you,
27:51 please email me at:
27:54 Or chat with us on the Dare to Dream Network Facebook page.
27:57 Until next time, be the change you want to see, and remember
28:00 the purpose of life is a life of purpose.


Home

Revised 2021-05-11