We would, all of us, like to think that we are guided primarily by our reason, not our emotions. Those of us who have lived long enough know better. This is nowhere truer than in the political sphere.
“The political brain is an emotional brain. It is not a dispassionate calculating machine, objectively searching for the right facts, figures, and policies to make a reasoned decision. The partisans in our study were, on average, bright, educated, and politically aware. And yet they thought with their guts.”
“In politics, when reason and emotions collide, emotion invariably wins. Although the marketplace of ideas is a great place to shop for policies, the marketplace that matters most in American politics is the marketplace of emotions.”
—The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen
And so, it was when I traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, last year to testify before the joint commerce committee on pending Rent-To-Own legislation, I wondered how I might provoke a favorable emotional response from those Wisconsin legislative inquisitors before whom I was going to testify. I was, after all, sort of a carpetbagger in reverse, a Southerner traveling to the North to effect political change, and could therefore be easily dismissed as an interloper into Wisconsin state affairs.
The RTO story in Wisconsin has always been complicated. The state has never had an RTO law. Two governors—one a Democrat, one a Republican—both vetoed RTO bills that had painstakingly made their way through both chambers of the statehouse to the governor’s desk. Wisconsin courts have ruled against RTO companies multiple times, holding that RTO transactions are credit sales under the state’s celebrated Consumer Act. The Commissioner of Banking once tried to do the industry a favor with a regulation defining “nominal consideration,” but the attorney general raised such a hue and cry against such perfidy that the regulation was withdrawn almost as soon as it came into effect.
Despite the historic political and legal hostility to RTO, there remains one intrepid rental dealer in the state, a Wisconsin native with deep Wisconsin roots. He wanted to try once again to bring his state into line with all of the others regarding RTO. He asked me to go testify in support of a bill he got introduced, and I try never to say “No” to a rental dealer.
I am, as are many, possessed of an array of facts and figures about the industry that I can rattle off at any time—size, number of employees, number of customers, keep rates, past due percentages, deliveries, pick-ups, etc. I can read spread sheets. I determined, however, to forego the facts on this mission and, instead, make an emotional plea for passage. As a white male with a southern accent, I knew I was at a disadvantage with this strategy, but decided to plow ahead. Here is the gist of what I told the committee: I told them that I wanted to give them a hypothetical but argued that similar facts could be easily uncovered anywhere in the state.
Despite the historic political and legal hostility to RTO, there remains one intrepid rental dealer in the state, a Wisconsin native with deep Wisconsin roots. He wanted to try once again to bring his state into line with all of the others regarding RTO. He asked me to go testify in support of a bill he got introduced, and I try never to say “No” to a rental dealer.
I am, as are many, possessed of an array of facts and figures about the industry that I can rattle off at any time—size, number of employees, number of customers, keep rates, past due percentages, deliveries, pick-ups, etc. I can read spread sheets. I determined, however, to forego the facts on this mission and, instead, make an emotional plea for passage. As a white male with a southern accent, I knew I was at a disadvantage with this strategy, but decided to plow ahead. Here is the gist of what I told the committee: I told them that I wanted to give them a hypothetical but argued that similar facts could be easily uncovered anywhere in the state.
She calls the store and tells them to come get the pair, which they do. While there, the helpful and friendly delivery folks remind her of her reinstatement rights, which in the company she chose, last for a “lifetime.” They tell her that when she gets her money situation straightened out, she need only call the store and she can have the washer and dryer redelivered and reinstalled and pick up her payments right where she left off. When the weather warms, as it eventually must, she could also just rent the washer and hang the clothes to dry on the line outside. There are lots of choices in RTO.
And, of course, while she is renting, the store has committed to taking care of the product, making any repairs that are needed, for example, if the hoses started leaking or the dryer belt broke. None of that did happen to our mother, because she rented a name brand laundry pair, and, as it happened, it was new stuff. Looking at our two mothers, it is easy to see that the Milwaukee mother is at a huge, devastating disadvantage, really, because her state does not allow RTO.”I told the committee that the members should vote to move the RTO bill as soon as possible and help the citizens of their great state. I really thought that my appeal to emotion would win the day. Several legislators, during the hearing, pontificated about their sworn, moral duty to look out and protect “the least among us.” I gave them an example of “the least among us” in spades, and how to help them.
There were, predictably, the usual critics of RTO. Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group testified that RTO is a bad deal and that it costs too much. Nothing new from that group. A bombastic state senator excoriated the industry as “preying on the poor” and entrapping them in a vicious and unending cycle of debt. Again nothing new (and nothing true). I thought we were ahead with the committee.
Then came the nuns. There were two of them, dressed in the full habits of their order, bright blue as it happened. They were from Milwaukee, and the Archdiocese there has long opposed RTO.
They were of a certain age and spoke softly, but emphatically, about the poor in Milwaukee—think Call The Midwife. Their testimony was that RTO does not really help the poor, but they did. They explained that there was a St. Vincent de Paul store in Milwaukee, and that if someone needed something, a bed, a TV, whatever, they could just come down to their store, and if they couldn’t pay for what they needed, the Church would gladly just give it to them. So, said the nuns, there is really no need for RTO in Wisconsin, since charity and the milk of human kindness overflows in the state and can take adequate care of “the least among us.” Think you are tired of hearing those words, you should have been there.
And that was that. The Milwaukee nuns’ emotional appeal trumped this cisgendered southern white male’s emotional appeal and I knew that bill was dead in committee—and it was.
Ed Winn III serves as APRO General Counsel. For legal advice, members in good standing can email legal@rtohq.org.
