George McGovern (yes, THAT George McGovern, he of the $1,000 for every man, woman and child, including Tom Eagleton) is warning of nanny-state paternalism:

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.

And this shocker in support of payday lending:

Economic paternalism takes its newest form with the campaign against short-term small loans, commonly known as “payday lending.”

With payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee — usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.

Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn’t perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who’s familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next.

Unthinking liberals never seem to ask, much less answer, the question: Where will these people get loans if you kill off the payday lenders? Even George McGovern seems to understand that. He ought to tell our attorney general about it.

All of a sudden I’m not so embarrassed about my presidential vote in 1972.