Microloan
posted in Current Affairs, Deaf, General, deaf culture |Microlending is not a new concept. I do recall reading an article about it over 10 years ago about a small group of Korean women gathering together once a month and they would put in some money in the pot. If someone needs a small loan, she would “bid” for it with interest and have the loan. This loan is backed by personal trust, not to mention that there’s really a heavy emphasis on “saving face” in their culture. So there’s almost zero risk in making microloans.
Wikipedia has an expanded explaination of Microloan, sometimes called Microlending. I’m happy to read that it’s becoming a reality in the U.S. because most banks prefer to make bigger loans because of all the paperwork and staff involved.
Prosper is also a new concept on Microloan but this time organizations or a group of people with similar interest and find a worthy candidate to lend money to. It’s too new and I wouldn’t recommend jumping in right away but definitely something to keep an eye on.
The reason why I’m writing this is that sometimes it takes a small amount of money to move a person out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Let’s say a deaf person has zero or bad credit and is thus prevented from purchasing a Sidekick II on a prepaid plan. Maybe that Sidekick II is all the difference between being employed or being unemployed? What if this individual doesn’t have a permanent place to live but needs something so that a prospective employer may contact them? I don’t think is very far- fetched and it’s not a new concept at all. Just a creative solution to a vexing problem of being available for THE PHONE CALL.
Or what if having a car is the difference between driving to better paying job that’s not accessible by public transportation vs. a lower paying job that’s accessible by public transportation? What if the person was turned down for a car loan? A microloan can help.
Or let’s say someone is trying to make a living marketing on the Internet. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard them all. But I know it’s a fact that all it takes is a small amount of capital to become successful on the Internet! All that person needs is a small capital and access to a computer, say at a public library and they’re in business. Thousands of people are doing this every day! One example is to scour eBay for products that have misspelling names on their ads and just buy it cheaply and then turn around and sell it for a higher price. Doesn’t take that much capital to do that, if done properly.
Bottom line: It doesn’t take thousands of dollars to help someone off their feet and get out of poverty. It can be a matter of a few hundred dollars.
It’s time to explore the concept of microlending as a valid alternative to spending thousands of dollars for welfare.
