On Neoliberalism and Welfare: Payday Lending and Commodifying Social Provisioning

You would be forgiven for hazarding that the lounge room was in a working-class house some way out of central London, Toronto or maybe Chicago. Our chairs were comfortable but had seen better days. Curious kids climbed over us. The TV was blaring, and it was a bit stuffy from cigarettes. You get the picture. We just happened to be in a western suburb of Melbourne. Even before we sat down, Maryanne (a pseudonym), who had contacted us after hearing that she'd receive $50 for an interview about how she managed her money, offered us a cup of tea. There had been an awkward moment when we were deftly steered away from the kitchen. After interviewing more than a hundred people on low incomes, mostly around kitchen tables, we were on autopilot. Oops! No table-just some indentations in the linoleum showing where it had been before losing a leg. Anyway, the tea settled things down.