Today’s Springfield News-Leader has an op-ed (link via Combest) written by a state rep who is seeking to promote the growth of the mafia and loan sharks pass legislation limiting payday loans in Missouri. I never cease to be astounded at politicians, of either party, who consistently attempt to protect people from themselves and casually limit people’s freedoms as they do so.

Read the entire piece. Note the constant begging-the-question, asserting that there is a problem with payday loans without ever attempting to prove it. Enjoy the absolute lack of economic analysis in the piece. Consider the obvious unintended consequences of this, which are not even remotely acknowledged. Discuss the assumption throughout the piece that the state must have a role in limiting private, legal business transactions between free adults. Then come back here in two weeks or so, after we do some economic video performance art, chronicling my plan to take out a payday loan a week from Monday and use the money to go gambling.