Showing posts with label Aloe Blacc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aloe Blacc. Show all posts

Saturday 31 August 2013

Disturbed By Payday Loans Companies



Today is really sunny and has been fine but my walk from The Stateside Diner to the Green Market took me past a few payday loans places. The purported concept of a payday loan is creditable , a short term loan to cope with an unexpected event. The reality is that for people in a reasonable financial situation that can easily be resolved using a credit card , overdraft or similar.

The reality of payday loans company is that their main users are people who cannot go to banks to help them , and often end up having to pay the extortionate rates for a very long time because they end up taking a short term loan to pay off your previous short term loan.

The thing that shocks is how mainstream they have become , with TV advertising, celebrity endorsement (I saw one featuring David Dickinson today) , and sponsoring of football teams such as Newcastle United , Blackpool and Hull. So they are obviously raking in the money with an effectively captive market , standing between their clients and either loan sharks or destitution. That makes them sound good.

I really don't what the answer is, bar ensuring employers pay a living wage and ensuring that essentials such as food, utilities , transport and power are not allowed to hike their prices as and when they deem fit for the benefit of the shareholders. And this is not the fault of the companies , they have to answer to shareholders and their only purpose is to fill shareholders pockets. It is the fault of governments who sell off services in the name of "giving people a chance to share in the profits" when in reality what happens is that the people who can't afford to buy shares (the payday loans companies' captive market) line the pockets of those who can afford to buy shares.

There's something wrong when a county's utilities are owned by a foreign company.

Anyway that's my post over . Sorry it's been a general downer. But at least it's a reason to post the excellent Aloe Blacc song "I Need A Dollar".