Comments on: Atheists Atop Microfinancing Leaders on Kiva

By: Pastafarians: The Most Charitable Human Beings « Camels With Hammers

Pastafarians: The Most Charitable Human Beings « Camels With Hammers — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:41:00 +0000

[...] The Most Charitable Human Beings Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta reports: I’ve mentioned before how atheists are atop the leaderboard at Kiva — a website that “allows people to lend money via [...]

By: Plainfieldrob

Plainfieldrob — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:18:57 +0000

Just joined – didn’t know it existed.

Atheists still in front…

4657 members
$653,650 in loans

Kiva Christians

2177 members
$473,000 in loans

By: bigjohn756

bigjohn756 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:24:37 +0000

Kiva also finances cock fighting:

http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/popular-internet-microlending-site-kiva-funding-cockfighting

By: Eliza422

Eliza422 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:53:09 +0000

I didn’t realize this lending team existed. I have just gone to switch over to it. All my new loans now will go to this team. Awesome!

By: DCKate

DCKate — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:38:09 +0000

I’ve been lending on Kiva for over a year, but I didn’t know there was a team… I just joined up

By: artemis

artemis — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:07:25 +0000

Wow! According to the Kiva help center FAQ, the average interest rate the borrowers have to pay back is 21%, some are 30% or more (you can look up the individual lenders to see). And probably the reason that the payback rate is so high is that there are no laws protecting the borrowers from unethical retribution for not paying back loans. “payback rate most US Banks would kill for” may be a little too accurate. There are reports of dramatic increases in suicide among Indian farmers in debt — they just can’t pay back these loans with 20, 30, 40% or more interest.

If it seems too good to be true ….

By: Diagoras

Diagoras — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:04:22 +0000

I didn’t even know that such a wonderful organization existed. I’ve signed up and made a donation.

By: Noadi

Noadi — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:49:55 +0000

Great! I already made one Kiva loan a little while ago (with plans for more) but didn’t know about this team. Just joined.

By the way I happen to own a small productive American business thanks to the investment of people who believed in me. Kiva lets me give people who want to do what I’m doing a chance get started in places where they can’t get a bank loan or borrow from a family member with the cash like I did.

Besides these are LOANS, it means they get paid back and since Kiva has a payback rate most US Banks would kill for I’m unlikely to lose much money out of this.

By: artemis

artemis — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:29:51 +0000

Some microfinance partners use extreme coercion to make sure their borrowers repay the money (e.g. thowing families out of the community, cutting back on food to children in the family so that the money first goes to repay the loan, etc).

Is there any way to know which organizations in Kiva don’t engage in these tactics? I’d rather risk losing my money than be party to unethical collection techniques. The 0% default rate of most of these orgs is disturbing.

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:34:48 +0000

“Of course, the left loves giving money to foreign entities and those with little hope of success.”

Of course, Unbrainwashed, you realize the meaning of the word “loan”, right? Versus the huge bailouts your favorite corporations are begging for currently; those are gifts your great grandchildren will be paying for. Isn’t that nice of them?