A billion pounds?

[ciphergoth]

babysimon: "You could do a lot of good with £1bn"

How would you spend a billion pounds in order to do good? You can't spend it on yourself or your friends.

Comments

[zwol.livejournal.com]

I like a lot of the options posted above, but here's another one: I'd buy up check-cashing and payday-loan chains and force them to stop gouging money out of poor people.

(I don't know if this is a problem in the UK. It's endemic here on the left side of the pond.)

[lovingboth]

They exist, but I'm not sure how much of a problem they are.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

A big problem for lots of people. My mum works for the CAB on debt and her views on these firms are about the only time I've heard swear words from her. One chap got patio doors 15 years ago, and owes more now than when he started - he took the sodding doors with him when he moved house. And that's without missing any payments or anything.

The Government keep promising to cap legal interest rates, but so far haven't and it might just force the problem underground (for once, a legit concern). I'd certainly consider putting part of my £1bn into local community microcredit schemes, to help get people away from the clutches of loan sharks and these sub-prime companies.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, microcredit schemes are an excellent use of (at least some of) the cash - and introducing them over here might be very useful.