Last night’s episode of “Last Week Tonight” may have been the most depressing yet.
As always, host John Oliver spent over half his show — 16 minutes — tackling a single topic. While he sometimes focuses on inside baseball items like media outlets’ native advertising, on Sunday, Oliver focused his attention on the heart of working class America, taking on the vampire industry of payday loans.
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It is an industry that takes in over $3 billion in profit, in large part by trapping working people into horrible cycles of desperate repayments, subsistence living, and debt. And, while it should have been reformed a long time ago — the crisis following the 2008 market collapse would have been the perfect time! — it is propped up by lawmakers who either own payday loan outfits, or get substantial donations from their lobbyists.
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And, as the dismayed host pointed out, even when there is regulation, they find a way to get around it.
Bonus: Sarah Silverman joined Oliver in the segment, a bonus that required no extra fee.
