Credit Crunch Cure: Once upon a time, Securicor delivered money. Nowadays, Securicor deliver parcels. They were the victim of wages snatches and hijacks, and with the advent of the electronic age, a new 'cashless' method of having our wages paid came into play; and our money was magically transferred into our Bank account electronically, thus avoiding the robberies.
But this 'cashless' system, known as BACS, which is an acronym for Bankers' Automated Clearing Services,' also wanted paying. But so did Securicor in their day, so our boss thought he would avoid paying out quite so often. So we were cajoled away from our nice homely, snug, and manageable 52 pay days a year, to just 12; and monthly pay, despite our whinging and whining, became King.
But monthly pay has not only been our own personal undoing, it has also been the undoing of the UK and the rest of the world. And it was left unchecked, and it festered, and this credit crunch we are in is the ugly result.
You see, the human being could and did manage his money well through the 7 days we know as the working week, but give us a months' pay, and have it paid invisibly and cashless into our Bank account; and we spend the whole lot in just 14.
It didn't and still doesn't seem as if we are spending money any more; we are simply spending figures which appear on a Bank statement or an ATM screen; it's not cold, hard cash. We knew what we were doing with real money in our pocket, wallet or purse; but this invisible money doesn't, quite simply, add up in the same way.
Enter our flexible friend - the Credit Card; he's the chap who takes up the slack to pay for the other 14 days. Great! The Credit Card is there to cover our over-spend and to bridge that gap when we buy all the things we can't afford during that 'skint' fortnight of the month.
And it did!
But then, enough was enough.
And the world of finance crashed around the worlds' shoulders, and by necessity, has severely curbed our spending.
The only way out of the credit crunch is to go back to being paid weekly.
It makes sense.
We managed our money then, and if we wanted something we couldn't afford, we saved up for it! Yes, remember those old words from the dim and distant past; SAVING UP.
But the employers won't go back to the good old days of paying us weekly, because it will cost them more money, and hence, less profit. And anyway, they wouldn't do it on principle, because it would make us happy, and the bosses don't like it when they have a happy workforce, do they.