Hillbilly Elegy

shadow economy that people like me
occupied. To them, payday lenders were
predatory sharks, charging high interest
rates on loans and exorbitant fees for
cashed checks. The sooner they were
snuffed out, the better.
To me, payday lenders could solve
important financial problems. My credit
was awful, thanks to a host of terrible
financial decisions (some of which
weren’t my fault, many of which were),
so credit cards weren’t a possibility. If I
wanted to take a girl out to dinner or
needed a book for school and didn’t
have money in the bank, I didn’t have
many options. (I probably could have
asked my aunt or uncle, but I desperately