Don't like the way a business is run? Start your own!

In her letter in today's The Oklahoman, Cheryl Carlton makes a point that I have long held myself: if you don't like the way somebody runs their business, start your own! Don't just run to the government demanding that they force everybody else to run their businesses differently. In a free market, no one is forcing you to patronize any specific establishment. If you don't like the way one establishment is run, go somewhere else. Start your own business. Buy a different product.

Market effects?

Regarding "Pawn shops face uncertain future; Measure would cap interest rates at 36%” (news feature, April 5): If groups ranging from the Consumers Union to the NAACP and the National Fair Housing Alliance want to control the interest rate charged on pawn shop and payday loans, why don’t they go into the business themselves? Unless there’s a law that dictates the minimum amount of interest charged on a loan, they could charge as little as they want. Or is the market setting the interest rate? Are there so many defaults that in order to make anything, a high rate has to be charged to those who do pay?

If the pawn shops and payday lenders are making so much money, why isn’t there more competition?

Cheryl Carlton, Ponca City