how much?
C’mon admit it, who doesn’t like those lovable OAP characters in the wonderfully wacky Wonga ads? A stroke of advertising genius has established them as potential national treasures and bathed a whole industry in a wholesome, warm, rose-tinted glow. And don’t we all sing along to their delightful little ditty of the Mr Wonga jingle? All together now…aaahhhh. They must be oh so much nicer than that evil company which uses the banished queen of bankruptcy, Kerry Katona, as their own figurehead. Er, hold on a second, aren’t they all money-lending, loan-shark businesses? Doh.
The furore over the last couple of weeks concerning the operating practices of such ‘pay-day’ organisations is completely deserved and long overdue. Citing evidence of widespread and industry-wide irresponsible lending, recent criticism has highlighted the distress caused by the heinous and immoral practice of rolling over loans at interest rates of over 5000%, but and it’s a big BUT, these semi-corrupt businesses only exist as there’s a demand for their services out there, and it’s obviously a helluva demand. The venting of our collective spleen at these lenders only serves to highlight the massive social problems which we wish did not exist: firstly that many people live right on the breadline and are unable to survive without turning to these organisations; and secondly there’s still an element of society that choose to live beyond their means and in today’s grasping, materialistic and instantly gratifying society, that means we want it all and we want it now, and to hell in a hand-cart we all must go.
