This story has put spears into my heart from the day that I joined the U.S. Army. At the past five duty stations, to include Germany I have had the bad experience personally, and have had to counsel soldiers on the many rip offs that are right outside the gates of many major military posts. The advertising is straight forward and is designed to attract the young soldiers that have not established their credit, having basically come from their mothers aprons and into the fight. Advertisers use such things as "Will Finance E-1 and up" which basically comes down to, "We will give you a piece of junk car or loan, charge you 22% interest on the money financed, and also, as a bonus, put in the fine print, that we are not responsible for the working conditions of the vehicle at the time of purchase." These advertisements don't actually say these things, they instead just stick out in bold print, trying to lure the proverbial bees to fake honey. Now, the military does try to assist the soldiers by giving them insight into the dealings of these anti-american businesses, but, other than trying to put these establishments off limits, the fact remains, that there is little to do to stop this kind of fraud.
The next bit of crappy advertising comes at the price of the soldier that needs money, has spent all of his paycheck, and is about to get the car that he bought from the first disreputable dealer repossessed. These places really get me fired up, because they advertise such things as "Payday Loans" and "Title Loans" with the idea that if you take out a high percentage loan from them, and pay them back on payday, that they will have helped you out of a jam, and allowed you to live outside of your means. This kind of blasphemy leads the soldier to believe that it is okay, not fully knowing that they will not be able to pay off the loan on the next payday, as the interest payment that has accrued, has done so on a daily basis, and is now half as much as the original loan.
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