You can’t stop them. You can explain the dangers extensively to them but they will do it anyway. When the pressure is on, they will do it, again and again until they can’t do it any more. What am I talking about? Teenage sex? Not today. I’m talking about the increasing difficulty governments have regulating various businesses now on the Internet when all they have to do to escape regulatory jurisdiction is move their servers offshore.

When we vote in the Nov. 4 election, we will have the opportunity to approve or disapprove Proposition 200. The payday loan industry has endured a ton of well-deserved bad publicity. Their operations were poorly-disguised loan sharking. They charged outrageous rates of interest, and allowed rollovers at new fees, even though they are illegal.

A payday loan is essentially one in which the borrower writes a check to the loan company, which deducts its fee (interest) and lends the borrower cash. The loan is due in two to four weeks when the company will deposit the borrower’s check. It amounts to a payday anticipation loan for people who can’t qualify for more economical loans or wait for other lenders to check them out.

The problem comes on payday when the loan is supposed to be repaid. Suddenly the borrower has a payday when he doesn’t get paid. He gives his pay to the lender. At least, he is supposed to.

If he does, then he has to get to the next payday without the money from this payday. He is motivated to take a new payday loan to pay the last one. He may accomplish this by going from one loan company to another. Each loan takes additional fees. Eventually, the accumulated and refinanced fees become impossible to refinance further.

The Arizona law enabling payday lenders was an experiment. It automatically expires July 1, 2010. After that date, such operations will once again be unlawful in this state. That is what Proposition 200 is all about. A "yes" vote on 200 will repeal the experimental enabling law and its 2010 termination date and allow payday loan operators to continue to do business in this state indefinitely.

There are some reforms in the law but there are also some new loopholes. There are some limitations on fees. Rollovers remain prohibited. But lenders will have the power to debit the borrower’s checking account electronically. The borrower may not agree with the debit, or the amount, or even know of it until his checks start bouncing. This is a dangerous power to allow anyone, let alone a tarnished business such as payday lenders.

One thing caught my ear. Radio commercials are airing that sound like sound like some citizen’s group promoting Proposition 200 as a way to impose reforms on lenders. But the commercials are really paid for by Arizona Community Financial Services Association Inc. which uses the address of a Phoenix lobbying firm. It reports to the Arizona Corporation Commission that it is a nonprofit membership organization, but does not identify its members. Spokesmen were unavailable to describe the membership, but I suspect you would find payday lenders well-represented.

The way the proposition is presented, it is a negative option and can be confusing. A vote "yes" is ostensibly in favor of reform. A "no" vote would get rid of payday lenders in Arizona indefinitely.

At least that is the idea. In point of fact, payday loans are available on the Internet, their headquarters being both within and outside the country. The lenders could be anywhere. They might have their principal offices, really just one of the names on the door in Sealand, or Sark, or even some more famous places. The thing about such jurisdictions as Sealand and Sark is that their laws are designed to protect residents, individuals and companies. Actual operations could be in Ireland or Tuvalu.

But all is not lost. There is a way to stymie them. Unless they submit to our jurisdiction, deny them access to our courts to collect their loans.

Oh, if it were only this easy to control teenage sex.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.