I was just disturbed from the comfort of the studio in my basement by the sound of my buzzer ringing. I always know something is up when the buzzer rings; all my friends know to come to the back door. Living in unit one of my building means I get a lot of people buzzing for different things… taxi, pizza, salesmen… This time it was a man delivering flyers for Easy Cash, the new payday-loan and cheque-cashing business that has opened up around the corner from us. Not surprisingly they hired some poor soul to go around the local townhouse complexes to promote their business. “We’re not interested” I said, and then hung up the little phone. I was about to head back downstairs before it occurred to me to peak my head out the door. Sure enough, he was buzzing the other units in the building trying to find someone to let him in. I walked to the front door and said “Sorry, we don’t accept unsolicited material here.” He smiled and went on his way. My problem here isn’t with the worker who has likely been hired at a piece-work rate that amounts to less than minimum wage to deliver these flyers to the neighbourhood. My problem is with this new business right around the corner from my front door. These payday-loan and cheque-cashing businesses are predators. They target people who have no other choice but to use their services and charge outrageous fees for basic financial services. The big banks continue to deny accounts to the most vulnerable in our society. At the same time, these shady businesses are opening up everywhere to fill the hole. These are services that every Canadian should be entitled to though a public postal bank. Everyone should be able to open free chequing and saving accounts. Most of the industrialized world established postal banking long ago. It is time for Canada to catch up!
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:54:40 +0000
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