Hillbilly Elegy

eighteen dollars an hour. Three jobs
were too much, so I dropped the job I
loved the most—my work at the Ohio
senate—because it paid the least. I
needed money and the financial freedom
it provided, not rewarding work. That, I
told myself, would come later.
Shortly before I left, the Ohio senate
debated a measure that would
significantly curb payday-lending
practices. My senator opposed the bill
(one of the few senators to do so), and
though he never explained why, I liked to
think that maybe he and I had something
in common. The senators and policy staff
debating the bill had little appreciation
for the role of payday lenders in the