Wonga.com - Legal loan shark or small fish in a big pond?

Stella Creasy has suddenly amassed a whole new load of twitter followers in the last couple of weeks. Don't know who she is? You don't know who Stella Creasy is? Are you sure? Don't worry, everybody else was the same a fortnight ago. That is until she attacked one of the nations most-loved institutions - Red or Black? - A gameshow in which contestants pit their wits against nature and mathematics itself - due to their controversial choice of headline sponsor.

Big gameshows need big sponsors and this year ITV have got their wonga from Wonga.com. This is a service that offers short-term loans at high interest rates to pretty much anybody who can click a button (or get someone to click a button for them). The problem with this is that, if the media are to be beleived, the only people who use the service are those who are already in a lot of debt, thus putting them in more debt.

It is true that Wonga.com is a hindrance rather than a help to some. Some people, rather than try to organise their finances, go to Wonga as a short-term option which suddenly becomes a long-term worry. But can you blame Wonga for this? Can you blame McDonalds for fat people? Can you blame Coca Cola for dental problems?

My answer is no! Humans like to beleive they are in control of themselvess, so if this is the case surely fault lies solely at one's own door?

And what about the people who use the service because they desperately need it. Maybe your car breaks down a week before pay day? Or pay day is late for whatever reason? Wonga makes repayment options and costs very clear. To any economists out there, the free market problem of asymmetric knowledge doesn't exist!

Also, if you think Wongas charges are bad, try looking and banks charges for going overdrawn. It may just change your mind about who really is the loan shark...

@paulcoffee

A message to you, Louis

Due to familial arrangements I have ended up watching X factor tonight. This blog is exactly what you think it will be; a rant about the talent(less) show.

However, this isn't about the show in general. Yes the judges are overpaid and over-pampered. Yes 95% of the people who walk onto that famous stage are terrible singers. And yes, people really should have better things to do with their Saturday night. Though tonight, things reached a new low...

I will set the scene for you, if I may. A Pink tribute artist walks out on to the stage, looks exactly like Pink and sings a Pink song. Her parents are also Tom Jones and Shania Twain tribute artists, but that is completely unrelated. After the song she claimed she had been trying to get away from being Pink and, wait for it (insert 5 minutes X factor style pause here for effect; go and make a cuppa or something) X factor made her sing a Pink song when she didn't want to!

Suddenly millions of people across the UK gasped in horror! We now know the X factor is rigged, as we have always known, and now we have proof! I am going to straight to twitter to be a twit and tweet about this...

But stop right now, thank you very much. I need somebody with a .... never mind I got carried away, but seriously, think about it. Don't X factor edit their own footage? So it is very kind of them to include a potentially secret-revealing moment. Or is it?

It now means from day 1 people will be talking about X factor. All of the time. As people can't wait to tell their friends it is rigged and it all came out, they are talking about X factor. As they go on their Facebook all they see is X factor. X factor. X factor. X FACTOR!!!!

And do you want to know the sad thing? This blog is doing exactly what the incident wanted to do...making people talk and complain about X factor. Wow it annoys me. A lot.


 

@paulcoffee