The Workermonkey

Friday, February 02, 2007

Micro-Credit Comes to the USA 

# posted by wyldshaman @ 2/02/2007 08:34:00 AM

I've been kinda following the micro-credit idea, where $20-$500 is loaned to people in the developing world so they can start a business or buy some chickens or whatever. These people have nothing so cant get access to Capital, well it seems to be working.

A few days ago the paper reported on a similar development here in the USA. If you need say $2000 to buy something where do you go? Well id say most of us could easily turn to our family, maybe even friends, but for many, thats not an option. And if your credit sucks or you just dont have any credit, Banks are out of the question and Credit Cards... well we all know there dangerous for some.

Now theres PROSPER. A net based person-to-person lending site. Its kinda interesting, basically average people become bankers and loan their own money out to others, with interest of course, why let the big banks make all the money?

Plus your helping people access Capital whom otherwise might not have the ability to, plus with all the information presented and around a 1% default rate, its seems fairly safe. Check it out.

Oh yes, I've been "Keepin' It Real" as well, i just got back from Thailand, but my attempts to upload a picture or two failed, so i gave up and posted this instead.

PEACE!

10 comments

Umm...yea...I..uh...need like a million dollars to...uh...do stuff...with.

By  Brancibeer, at Friday, February 02, 2007 3:46:00 PM  

Thailand! Wow, how was it?

By  Brancibeer, at Friday, February 02, 2007 3:46:00 PM  

GREAT

By  wyldshaman, at Friday, February 02, 2007 5:25:00 PM  

i've heard a lot about hte micro payment thing to small countries, the guy who inventing it got a noble prize. My dad has this really rich cousine that sends the whole family differnt gifts every year. it used to be stuff like fancy meat or nice coffeecake until last year he sent everyone these giant brandy snifters and someone told him to give up giving everyone crap. well this year he decided to start one of those micropayment accounts for each part of the family. Each account is worth 500$ and we're able to do with it as we please. my parents could care less about it and really don't understand it but i've got a few ideas of my own i'd like to try.

any suggestions?

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Friday, February 02, 2007 9:25:00 PM  

How about I sign up as needing a loan, you loan the money from you and your parents to me, I give it to you in real life (minus small cut) and you mark it as paid back, happily holding the cash.

What were your ideas? How about this one from the site:

"I have an opportunity to invest in a revolutionary new device which uses a molybdenum cold fusion photon matrix to initiate a self-sustaining chain reaction that produces more energy than it uses. It was invented by my wacky neighbor in his garage."

Could you buy him tuition for a beginning mechanical engineering class?

By  Damon, at Monday, February 05, 2007 3:05:00 PM  

i thought of a similar scam w/ paypal and using the reward points on your credit cards. needless to say I was not the first and apparently safeguards are in place to once again slash my dreams.

By  ron, at Monday, February 05, 2007 10:26:00 PM  

no no no, my ideas involve sustainalbe water pumps which are mostly human powered and mosquito nets to fight malaria. its only 500$ no nuclear fusion garage research.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Tuesday, February 06, 2007 4:37:00 AM  

Matt are you trying to single-handedly change the US' goofy convention of putting the currency sign before the number, unlike the rest of the world? What about date order like 6 Feb 07, which sensibly goes from smallest to largest unit unlike ours, and don't even get me (and the rest of you engineers?) going on the stupid dumb ignorant American system of units. I found it funny when Fox News referenced the other day what the rest of the world does to further some argument they were making, but why don't they consult the rest of the world on health care, nuclear weapons, whether or not Israel is a legit country, capital punishment, and where the middle of the political spectrum is. My my it's lonely being America.

By  Damon, at Tuesday, February 06, 2007 6:22:00 PM  

no i have no crazy ideas about changing anything of the sort, i just like to write it how i would speak it, 500 dollars (500$). same with the date so i would say the month first, july whatever, whatever becasue thasthow i would speak it.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Tuesday, February 06, 2007 9:39:00 PM  

no problems with the english system here. Just don't try to tell me what a "pound mass" is. I'll kick you in the nuts because anyone with a good education knows that the correct unit for mass in the english system is a slug. ykxnqve

By  ron, at Tuesday, February 06, 2007 11:23:00 PM  

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