Unregulated free markets? The banking/loan industry is a heavily regulated industry in both Canada and the US.
Yes, predatory lending exists and it may be immoral, but it still requires the other side to agree to it. And keep in mind that the other side frequently has no intention/ability of paying. That is at minimum acting in bad faith and is usually against the law, even if there is no misrepresentation of income, assets, etc. In many jurisdictions, merely taking out an unsecured loan without the intention of actually paying it back (regardless of what the lender says or does) is technically illegal.
I didn't mean to imply people were rational. Not only are people frequently not rational, there is also an information asymmetry that is involved with most financial/legal/medical decisions that would make people elect choices that are not in their own best interest.
I wasn't trying to say they were rational, merely that they are still required to agree to the terms of the predatory lending and they should still be considered responsible for their choices. Also, I wanted to point out that they frequently are not the innocent victims that they are made out to be. Many times they are just as bad as the lenders simply because they don't intend to pay. The lenders are just far better at inducing payment than crooked borrowers are at getting away without paying the money back.
Look at student loans. Nearly half of all students think that their loans will be forgiven eventually. Maybe they are right, maybe they aren't. No one knows. But the point is that they are taking on the loans because they don't expect to be held liable for and required to pay back in full.
> keep in mind that the other side frequently has no intention/ability of paying. That is at minimum acting in bad faith and is usually against the law
I see. My complaint is that a credit card company knowingly took advantage of a disabled man, and your answer is that he was the villain in the situation.
The man sometimes couldn't tell what was real vs what he had imagined happened. He couldn't go too far from home alone because he would forget how to get back. He was a wonderful human being, a hilarious story teller, and happened to be disabled because of a health issue.
Yes, predatory lending exists and it may be immoral, but it still requires the other side to agree to it. And keep in mind that the other side frequently has no intention/ability of paying. That is at minimum acting in bad faith and is usually against the law, even if there is no misrepresentation of income, assets, etc. In many jurisdictions, merely taking out an unsecured loan without the intention of actually paying it back (regardless of what the lender says or does) is technically illegal.