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As more companies view low-income Americans as opportunities for profit, the "poverty business" is booming.
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL and EXPOSÉ: AMERICA'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS follow a team of BUSINESSWEEK reporters as they track new corporate practices that some say exploit the working poor.
BUSINESSWEEK's coverage of the burgeoning poverty industry goes beyond the currently much debated practices of the sub-prime mortgage industry to other credit providers — for auto, consumer goods, and even student loans.
A second part of the investigation delves into the way that a "growing number of hospitals, working with a range of financial companies, are squeezing revenue from patients with little or no health insurance."
Read the original BUSINESSWEEK coverage:
"Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for the payday lending group, declined to disclose the ad's costs or target markets, and would not say how much the group will shell out for the entire campaign." (Columbus Business First). Heaven forbid the payday lending lobby actually comes clean about how much money they are pouring into our state to convince voters that they really need 391% interest.
If you were in the poverty business, how would you sleep at night? Cot, mattress and comforter, or African-Mahogany sleigh bed?