Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

Wake Up, Look Up a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach Weihrauch

and in today's episode we're asking the

question will Walmart break my legs uh

this is prompted by a Wall Street

Journal article about ARA a buy now pay

later lender who's now solidified their

status as the bnpl buy now pay later

provider for Walmart now buy now pay

later is a business model which allows

customers particularly those purchasing

online to stretch their payments for a

product from three to 36 months what

Clara is doing is integrating with

Walmart's app so that customers who are

buying a toaster oven or a television

instead of paying for it up front can

Finance it for up to three years at of

course an interest rate which produces

money for Clara money for Walmart and

allows Walmart to sell things to

customers who might not otherwise be

able to afford it now as you might guess

the break my legs reference here is that

this sounds a lot like lone sharking

because it is it's a predatory lending

that targets the poor who can't afford

the kinds of things Walmart sells at

least not UPF front but can maybe afford

monthly payments and there's a lot of

money in the bnpl buy now pay later

sector in fact Clara is getting ready to

prepare for an IPO on the New York Stock

Exchange that is supposed to do a

massive return that's because you can

make a lot of money getting people to

stretch their television over three

years you can make a lot of money doing

a lot of immoral things uh that's been

true for a long time and this is immoral

listen I I talk about a lot of morality

based things on wake up lookup and some

of them are pretty obvious to you we

talk about social media gambling

drinking drugs all those kinds of things

but sometimes immoral activity is so

baked into the warp and woof of a

culture that we can't even smell it

anymore but this kind of predatory

lending is evil here's why debt the

Bible tells us is a trap Proverbs 227

says that the borrower is slave to the

lender right once you sign your name to

something they own you and that's one

thing if you're buying a house which is

building Equity it's another thing if

you're buying a blender which is only

getting worse and you couldn't possibly

be resell look the book Book of Proverbs

also in chapter 10 warns against praying

upon the poor because after all that's

who's shopping at Walmart and that's who

needs to finance something at Walmart

when I was a kid if you couldn't afford

a television you could put it on layaway

now layaway worked this way you could go

into the store and put $10 down $20 down

whatever you wanted no interest and once

you had paid for it you took it home

okay fine I can understand the logic of

that but what companies like Clara are

doing is they're creating the illusion

of affordability they're saying to the

poor sure maybe you don't have $500 for

that television but if you pay $20 a

month for the next two and a half years

you can buy that television but what

they're not telling the poor is you

actually bought three televisions by

that point now you might say well people

should be smarter people should think

for themselves uh yeah I guess we could

apply that to drug addicts or gambling

addicts or drunks who are getting over

served at a bar uh there's a lot of

people who could think a lot better

about a lot of things but people who

make money off the ignorance of others

are evil people companies that do that

are evil companies listen be wise the

Bible tells us to not be Hasty Proverbs

21 tells us don't rush into things if

you can't afford something today then

you can't afford it Jesus said it this

way which of you sets out to build a

tower doesn't first do the math to make

sure he can finish it listen Christians

should be modeling Financial contentment

we should be the ones saying that if I

don't have the money it's okay my life

is not about my possessions and if you

want a TV and you can't afford one then

put $10 in a shoe box every week until

you go get one companies like Clara

aren't helping you they're hurting you

and let me just say this because it's

possible that it's more likely that I

have employees of Clara listening to

this than that I actually have customers

if you're a customer wait until you have

the money to buy it but if you're an

employee find another job benefiting off

the ignorance and financial

irresponsibility of others is not okay

Jesus said the entire law of God boils

down to this love God and love your

neighbor as yourself if you're selling a

bnpl product then I guess you're using

it right no of course not because you

know how dumb it is but what's not good

enough for you isn't good enough for

your neighbor hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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Have an article you’d like Pastor Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!