One cold morning, Sam Black woke up with painful chest pains. Troubled by this new condition, he went to see his cardiologist. Little did Sam know that a few hours later he would be lying on the operating table en route to a triple bypass. The operation went as planned, but it was not the last. Sam was sent to many specialists and rehabilitation centers, building up a big bill, which they had no money to pay. He still pays several thousand dollars a year for the medications he is prescribed. Years after the operation, Sam and his wife, Elsie, narrowly escaped foreclosure, but the most problematic debt they have is hundreds of small-term loans with triple-digit interest rates. Elsie once said in an interview about the loans they had to take out, “You can't really keep track of them” (Wright, 2011). Nearly a decade later, Sam has trouble speaking and has to carry an oxygen tank. They are a normal couple who found themselves caught in the endless cycle of payday loans. Like other millions of Americans, the Black family settled for dubious and overpriced short-term loans. Those who struggle with poverty know that there are few opportunities for change and few ways to get money. With a growing poverty line resulting in massive numbers of poor people living in inadequate living conditions, it is difficult to access basic necessities. Many factors lead to this ever-worsening tragedy. Many of those living in poverty have few resources needed to acquire money, leading them to decide to obtain money through payday loans or fast cash. Despite the amount of money payday loan companies lend to the lower classes, they actually cause more harm to those receiving assistance than they actually help them. ...... middle of document ...... reenberg, J. (November 21, 2013). Military left vulnerable to payday loans. From the New York Times Eitzen, S. and Smith, K. (2009). Living in poverty. (2nd ed., pp. 1-5). Pearson. Jost, K. (January 20, 2012). Financial misconduct. CQ Researcher, 22, 53-76.Melzer, BT (2011) The real cost of access to credit: evidence from the payday loan market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Mumford, K. (2012). A Bayesian analysis of payday lending and its regulation. In: Yacine Ait-Sahalia, Jianqing Fan, Han Hong, Cheng Hsiao, Peter Robinson (eds.), Journal of Econometrics. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp.205-216.Peterson, H. (nd). 6 scandalous facts that show how payday lenders screw consumers. Business Insider. Wage slavery. (November 15, 2013). From Wikipedia Wright, K. (2011). Bad credit, how payday lenders escape regulation. Nation.