Can we please not call BNPL an "invention"? BNPL Is marketing - that's all it is. There is nothing - NOTHING - different about BNPL to a credit card other than installment-style repayments and the fact that interest charges are gouged as late fees instead. APT, ZIP etc. had to have bad debt books just like a bank did.
Master illusionists Nick and Anthony duped an entire generation of consumers about how "it's an alternative to banks" and "it's not a credit card." Get f*kn real it's exactly a credit card - I used Afterpay for several purchases and thought WTF IS THE DIFFERENCE!? You still use your Visa card or bank account to repay your balance at the end of the day. This is NOT an invention, it's just a clever gimmick that Nick exploited to become a billionaire.
I heard one podcast recently that talked about how BNPL made Americans spend more than they already did and how lots of them have been paying late fees - it's in the Z1P thread, you're welcome to read it.
@Gindaldan I live in Canada and IMO Canada has a significantly higher quality of life than Australia on the whole. Lots of benefits, lots of jobs and lots of opportunities, less judgy people, way easier to get laid. Everything is just so EASY to do. Jobs also seem more stable as companies are also very reluctant to fire people as "growth" is in the Canadian psyche, whereas in Australia all companies want to do is cut costs so they can boost dividends or meet targets for their bonuses even if it's not good for the company. I worked in skilled jobs for several companies and industries in Australia and every week you just had job cuts after job cuts, so depressing, I was one of the lucky ones till I decided to pack up and leave.
Canada IMO is also way more entrepreneurial. As long as you present a good case your company or a client will give you $$ for your project or business or idea, and they won't fret about it if you fail. In fact, they'll say "What lesson did you learn? As long as you learned something, here's more money. Go give her!"
That's why they probably came up with some epic companies like Lululemon, Spotify, Bombardier, Blackberry, Slack and 1Password. In Australia I can really only think of Canva and Atlassian which are great too.
In Australia, it's like "Ohhh, yeah I know you're keen to do this project but I gotta think of the shareholders and costs and my bonus. Oh and didn't you fail at your last project? How can you be trusted? In fact, I should include you in the next redundancy because you're a failure." - that's Australia for you. You fail and there's a stigma that follows you like a COVID infection - the CEO of Atlassian has said the same.
The one area where Canada generally lacks are that wages are less competitive. Lower minimum wage obvs, only 2-3 weeks of annual leave depending on the province/state (better than 1 week in America), no compulsory sickies, etc, and in skilled jobs, every time I talk to a Canadian we Google wages for the same profession in Australia and it's anywhere from 30-50% less.
Still, better than the US. And no guns!
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