The early puppet adverts and the new animated adverts give the company an air of harmless
fun, we are here to help, we are nice, look we have cartoon characters.
In reality they are making vast amounts of profit from human suffering. Up 35% on last year
to a total of £84.5 million this year.
Now if you look at the overall picture £84 million is a tiny sum when compared to the profits of
the big six energy companies or the banks but you have to consider that every single pound of
that profit comes from some of the most desperate and poverty stricken people in the UK.
But pay day loan companies have been around for many years, they are hardly a new problem.
Wonga draws most of the flak because of its high profile ads but there are hundreds of similar
companies out there.
So why are the media and our politicians suddenly up in arms about Wonga?
Because it is a useful smoke screen. A good whipping boy. Someone to blame and distract
attention away from the real problem.
Wonga is some guys lacking in morals and compassion who decided to start a company that
deliberately profits from the poorest and most desperate people.
Are they cruel and heartless, no more so than some banks or the energy companies?
Are they ruthless and lacking in compassion for the downtrodden, no more so that many MPs?
Wonga is NOT the problem.
POVERTY IS THE PROBLEM.
The ever growing number of people now in poverty is the problem.
One in five of our working population below the minimum wage is the problem.
Millions of people now in Fuel poverty is the problem.
Approaching a million people needing food banks to put food on the family table is the problem.
Are the people who run Wonga greedy heartless capitalist scum lining their own pockets with the
suffering of hundreds of thousands of poor people? Yep. But then the same can be said about the
big six energy companies or scores of other companies that do the same.
It can also be said of our Coalition Government that at times seems to go out of its way to crush the
poorest section of our society underfoot.
Suspending the price of electricity for a period of time will not work, the massive increase at the end
of that price lock will cripple millions of households.
Saying that no one will be disconnected if they fall behind over the winter simply means that
households who cannot afford the bills over the winter will be faced with an even larger and even
more un-payable bill come spring.
People desperate to heat their homes or cook their food will still be driven to loans and pawn shops
to make ends meet.
People desperate to put food on the family table at the end of a month before the next pitiful wage
arrives and who cannot or will not use food banks will still be driven to loans and pawn shops to make
ends meet.
Instead of spending time and effort picking on Wonga why not focus on the real problem.
Poverty.
Why don’t our MPs and Media cover the massive problem that is Poverty in the UK?
Why don’t our MPs and Media highlight how desperate people are when they are driven to companies
like Wonga instead of blaming Wonga for people being desperate?
Why don’t our MPs and Media look at the source of the problem not one of the symptoms.
Perhaps because to look at the real problem is to ask questions about the very nature of British
society in the twenty first century.
Questions that would shake the foundations of the comfortable lives of our Politicians.
Questions that would cause outrage in the voting population of the UK as they, perhaps, come to
understand just how bad things have become under all three of our Political Parties.
Questions that would lead to answers that would shine the harsh light of truth on our current
government, and the last government and on our society as a whole.
Questions that far too many of our Political leaders simply do not want asked.