The "prey upon the poor" is just as bad, if not worse, in Brazil. Growing up there you don't really realize, but after living abroad for a while it is painfully obvious.
Just a small example, stores that sell anything >30 USD don't put the real price of goods when they advertise them. They always put "<h5>x12</h5> <h1>{REAL_PRICE/12}</h1>" (show the price of the installment, while putting how many installments really small)
I had a data scientist friend who worked at a bank optimizing how much credit he could give out to people (while staying legal with the regulations). Like his goal was to get people to get more credit (usually credit card). My Bank app constantly bombard me with notifications about taking loans and getting credit cards.
This friend was not the most moral person I ever met and even him was disgusted after a few years working there, he was making a ton of money but he left anyway.
My parents had mid/severe problem with lotteries, they kept saying god was going to make them win the lottery so they could pay off their debts and fix the car.
I remember when I found out that some months they were spending around 20% of their income on lotteries.
Just a small example, stores that sell anything >30 USD don't put the real price of goods when they advertise them. They always put "<h5>x12</h5> <h1>{REAL_PRICE/12}</h1>" (show the price of the installment, while putting how many installments really small)
I had a data scientist friend who worked at a bank optimizing how much credit he could give out to people (while staying legal with the regulations). Like his goal was to get people to get more credit (usually credit card). My Bank app constantly bombard me with notifications about taking loans and getting credit cards.
This friend was not the most moral person I ever met and even him was disgusted after a few years working there, he was making a ton of money but he left anyway.