You're right that the poor face many asymmetric relationships day-in and day-out. Whether I would describe it all as "predatory" I would disagree.
Again, I think this is a very, very uncomfortable topic to have an honest conversation about, but I think people often mix up causation and correlation on this general topic. Let's stop kidding ourselves about it - many, many poor people are poor because they lack the basic building blocks for success that we take for granted: god-given intelligence, a strong work ethic, long-term thinking, careful considering for non-trivial decisions, an upbringing that values education, etc. I'm NOT saying all, but definitely many. So to the extent people and organizations are trying to in some way take advantage of "poor" people, this isn't really accurate - they are trying to take advantage of people who don't make good decisions. Heck, if you were trying to sucker someone for money, wouldn't you (ignoring everything else) go after someone with lots of money? People can't "catch their breath" or "get their affairs in order" not because of systemic oppression, but because they simply don't have the basic life skills to do it in the first place...that's probably a large part of why they're poor. There's also just a lot of inertia with this stuff, but we're getting way off topic. I read an interesting book about this years ago called The Persistence of Poverty, which I would recommend.
None of this is to say I am not empathetic or have any compassion. The blatantly predatory behaviors are deplorable and should be stopped and if applicable, the people involved should face whatever punishment is allowable. But adults need to be treated like adults at some point.
Again, I think this is a very, very uncomfortable topic to have an honest conversation about, but I think people often mix up causation and correlation on this general topic. Let's stop kidding ourselves about it - many, many poor people are poor because they lack the basic building blocks for success that we take for granted: god-given intelligence, a strong work ethic, long-term thinking, careful considering for non-trivial decisions, an upbringing that values education, etc. I'm NOT saying all, but definitely many. So to the extent people and organizations are trying to in some way take advantage of "poor" people, this isn't really accurate - they are trying to take advantage of people who don't make good decisions. Heck, if you were trying to sucker someone for money, wouldn't you (ignoring everything else) go after someone with lots of money? People can't "catch their breath" or "get their affairs in order" not because of systemic oppression, but because they simply don't have the basic life skills to do it in the first place...that's probably a large part of why they're poor. There's also just a lot of inertia with this stuff, but we're getting way off topic. I read an interesting book about this years ago called The Persistence of Poverty, which I would recommend.
None of this is to say I am not empathetic or have any compassion. The blatantly predatory behaviors are deplorable and should be stopped and if applicable, the people involved should face whatever punishment is allowable. But adults need to be treated like adults at some point.