Great soldiers are not necessarily good businessmen or women. In fact, many of our nation’s soldiers are young and naive at best.
Away from home for the first time for many of them, too many of our soldiers fall prey to unscrupulous payday loan operations. Deployments can force a young soldier to sign the bottom line on a loan that can translate routinely to 400 percent interest rates.
U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., joined with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida to add language to a defense spending bill last month designed to protect our servicemen and women from these loan operations that pop up around every military base.
“Unfortunately, this has been a case of young men and women who are great warriors but are not that sophisticated (in finances),” Mr. Talent said during a visit to St. Joseph last week. “They get in over their heads without realizing they can’t get out again.”