Servicemen and debt…
I heard an interesting podcast about the increasing debt carried by people serving our country and how it is becoming a security issue. As I started to write this blog I did a quick search and found many articles on this topic. Here is one from digg and another from ABC News. So, the interesting thing is that I heard this podcast after hearing about a friend of mine who is in a similar situation.
A couple of the podcast points were:
- the author started by looking at pay day loan centers that have sprung up around military bases
- the government is looking to regulate the interest rates these businesses can charge servicemen
- soldiers are losing security clearances and being pulled off duties that require it
The good news is that the govenrment is starting to treat this as a real issue. The podcast quoted one officer saying that they’ve always placed physical needs at the top of the list knowing that fit, healthy, fed and housed servicemen would be equiped to do their job and that they are now starting to spend additional time training servicemen to be responsible with their money.
Education or experience is going to be the key. It’ll be easier if it is education and it’ll hurt more if it is experience that delivers the education.