Clearly there is a need for something <i>like</i> payday loans, where people in dire straits can get small cash infusion to get them by. It also seems to be the general consensus that these same people are "high-risk", and so require higher interest rates.<p>So what's the solution to this problem? Clearly a lot of (maybe all) of the payday loan-type places are <i>evil</i> -- is there a way to service these customers without being evil? Would a not-for-profit (or perhaps even a not-for-an-exorbitant-profit) payday loan organization be possible? Or would the typical nasty collections process, the thousands of dollars of interest on a $500 loan still be required, even if the people at the top <i>weren't</i> becoming millionaires?<p>I guess what I'm asking is, in the story, we see someone paying something like $3900 on a $700 loan, made by one of these <i>evil</i> companies. What would their total bill be if the loan was made by a non-profit organization? Would it be more like $1000, or still closer to $3900?