The main reason why society does not like pay day loans, is that there is more harm than good in lending money to people who cannot reliably pay back. If you do

The main reason why society does not like pay day loans, is that there is more harm than good in lending money to people who cannot reliably pay back. If you don't have $500 to repair your car and do not have good credit history -- then probably you would be better off without car, because you won't be able to take proper care of that car anyway. And without payday loan it's harder to get drunk/drugged, so society benefits from not having payday loans. On the other hand it does not make sense to criminalize payday loans, because as gcheong mentioned -- the alternative is broken kneecaps by loansharks. The result: payday loans are neither prohibited, nor supported by government, and are booed by society.