system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The Ramsey Debt Snowball Method of getting out of debt hurts consumers by totally disregarding interest rates

Consider this situation: 

A person has $8,000 auto loan at 2.5% through their credit union and $20,000 in credit card debt at 24%.

The Ramsey Debt Snowball method would have you put every extra dime into the car until it is paid off while paying the minimum on the credit card.  This would cost the consumer thousands of extra dollars.

Now if you called into the show he would probably tell you to sell the car, buy a "hooptie" and put the rest of the equity toward the credit card debt.

I disagree with this as well, because driving a  $1,000 car has a whole lot more risk and hidden costs than driving a $10,000 car. It is likely to cost much more per mile driven in poorer fuel economy, more frequent maintenance costs, and time spent looking for a different car every couple of years.  It could also make you lose your job if you are constantly missing work due to breakdowns.

So my two points are: 

1. Paying off high interest rate loans first makes more financial sense than paying off small loans first

2. Paying a reasonable interest rate on a loan for a good, used modest vehicle makes more financial sense than paying cash for a junker.
gpt
I mean, you are literally correct from a mathematical standpoint. That’s not a view that can be changed. But the point of the snowball method is not to be the most mathematically efficient, it’s to give people the best chance of paying off all their debt eventually. From Wikipedia:

>	In situations where a debt has both a higher interest rate and higher balance than another debt, the debt-snowball method will prioritize the smaller debt even though paying the larger debt would be more cost-effective. Several writers and researchers have considered this contradiction between the method and a strictly mathematical approach. Writing in Forbes, Rob Berger noted that "humans aren’t really rational creatures" and stresses that research tends to support the debt snowball method in real-world scenarios. The primary benefit of the smallest-balance plan is the psychological benefit of seeing results sooner, in that the debtor sees reductions in both the number of creditors owed (and, thus, the number of bills received) and the amounts owed to each creditor. In a 2012 study by Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, researchers found that "consumers who tackle small balances first are likelier to eliminate their overall debt" than trying to pay off high interest rate balances first. A 2016 study in Harvard Business Review came to a similar conclusion:

>> We tested a variety of hypotheses and ultimately determined that it is not the size of the repayment or how little is left on a card after a payment that has the biggest impact on people’s perception of progress; rather it’s what portion of the balance they succeed in paying off. Thus focusing on paying down the account with the smallest balance tends to have the most powerful effect on people’s sense of progress – and therefore their motivation to continue paying down their debts.