I'm just tellin' you what it is they're actually doing. ie lending you your own "money" you haven't earned yet. When you go submit that 5K loan application, they tend to look at your assets, payment history and future earning potential. Why do you think the guy who's held a good job for many years with a good solid company can get a loan for a nice big house, a car, a vacation, his daughters wedding, etc etc etc, but a guy workin' at McDonalds for the past 8 months can't get a loan for a new scooter? The bad part is that once this treadmill of fractional reserve lending gets going, there's no real good way to stop it without a lot of hurt being inflicted. Which is where I blame those alive at the time for letting this crap get started to begin with. Did they really think permanent growth would actually become a permanent thing?