[glup]

This question gnaws at my bones, too. Best answer so far wrt the upper middle class: logics of capitalism (competition, accumulation) combined with ethnic/cultural/ideological/socioeconomic isolation makes it hard to identify with (most) other people. With reduced empathy for those affected by exploitation, we construct a new set of mythologies to normalize the exploitation (increasing efficiency of markets). Moral objections are then dismissed as quaint, naive, and/or utopian.

It also seems like material scarcity and instability make it harder to converge on norms like morality (for good game-theoretic reasons). But why would a private individual with $10M have a position in a company that provides payday loans? Beats me.

[enraged_camel]

>>But why would a private individual with $10M have a position in a company that provides payday loans? Beats me.

Payday loan firms are enormously profitable, because they prey upon people who are in dire need of cash. The private individual you mention has managed to accumulate his wealth by exploiting those people.

[yompers888]

Can you support this claim? I don't dispute the fact that the interest rates are astronomical, but I am skeptical about how the profitability pans out once you deal with the enormous risk of the borrowing group. I imagine most of the upside lies in trying to prey upon people who are in less dire need of credit than they think, because then they can have their enormous upside without as enormous a risk. Your assertion suggests that there's money on the table if only someone will step up to take it, and I find that to be a damning implication for an argument, absent strong proof.