Falling into debt

LARGE numbers of people in the developed nations now enjoy a high standard of living. However, this increased prosperity has not always brought contentment. The more of the world’s goods some people have, the more they want.

Because of this, more and more people are regularly getting into debt. They may already have great spending power, but they wish to increase this. Therefore, they borrow money from one source or another. Not surprisingly, they often have great difficulty in replaying those loans to their creditors, especially at times of high interest rates. In the worst cases, they may then become bankrupt or, if they have taken out mortgages or used their houses as security against a loan, they may lose their homes.

People today have a completely different attitude debt from previous generations. Formerly, debt was often regarded as something shameful. People had a simpler attitude to budgeting. If they could not afford to buy something, they either did without it, or else saved up for it. In most cases expenditure was not greater than income.

Nowadays, we tend to speak more of credit than of debt and it is increasingly easy to obtain such credit. As the number of credit cards available increases, more and more of us are putting our purchases on the plastic. Indeed it is sometimes difficult to pay in cash.

People who are refused bank loans, or who are not creditworthy enough to obtain credit cards, sometimes borrow money from loan sharks. They have to be in a very bad financial position to do this, as the rate of interest charged by these lenders is often astronomical.

Some people are debtors because it is impossible for anyone at all to live on such small incomes. Others may do so because they do not have enough funds to cope with a sudden financial crisis.

However, a growing number of people are becoming shopaholics. Whenever they feel depressed, they go on a spending spree, calling this retail therapy, and not caring that they are exceeding the limit of their credit card or their bank overdraft. ‘Live now, pay later’ is their motto.

MEANINGS

astronomical especially of a sum of money, price, etc, extremely large: Prices at that restaurant are astronomical. bankruptcy the state of being bankrupt: The number of bankruptcies among small firms is rising rapidly. bankrupt not having enough money to pay what you owe, according to a court of law: Mike has been declared bankrupt because his firm has been losing money and he has a huge mount of unpaid bills and loans. budgeting the act of planning carefully how to spend one’s money or resources. Tim is not interested in budgeting; he spends all his money the first week after he gets paid and then has to borrow money. in cheques I credit don’t cash, have a or method by credit that cash much cards: of in payment money form It’s of rather with by notes which me. a large and goods bill cash to and pay rather services by cash; than are original credit. paid amount: for a later It times, is often usually more with expensive interest to added buy goods to the on credit purchase card goods a small and services, plastic card the which customer can be paying used the to credit don’t think card the company small shops later, will usually accept the with credit added cards. interest: I creditor bankrupt because a person it couldn’t to whom pay money its creditors. is owed: The firm went creditworthy to be given credit considered or lend money. financially Mr and reliable Mrs Jones enough have no mortgage on their house and so the bank regarded them as creditworthy enough to receive a fairly large loan. debt money which is owed; a situation in which you owe money: You will get into debt if you spend more than you earn. debtor a person who owes money: Charlie could afford to pay all his bills if his debtors paid him. expenditure the amount of money spent; the act of spending money. The expenditure of more money on that old building is regarded by many as a waste of public funds. funds money that is available to be spent: Sue would like to buy a flat but she; doesn’t have enough funds to pay a deposit. income money that is earned from doing work or from business investments: Families on such low incomes can scarcely afford to eat. interest rates the percentage at which interest is charged: Borrowing is very cheap just now as interest rates are at the lowest in years. loan shark a person who charges very high rate of interest on a loan. The woman committed suicide because she could not keep up with the weekly payments to the loan shark. mortgage an agreement by which a bank or other financial organisation lends you money to buy a house, etc and by which you agree to pay back the money over a number of years on the understanding that the house will belong to the bank if payments are not made; We have taken out a mortgage for our new house with the bank. motto a short phrase or sentence that expresses the beliefs, aims, etc. of a person or organisation: Dave says his motto is ‘Do as you would be done by.’ overdraft an amount of money that you owe a bank, either by arrangement or not, when you have spent more money than is in your account; an arrangement by which you are allowed to do this: The bank has agreed to increase my overdraft to RM10.000. plastic put something in plastic to pay for something by credit card: Putting things in plastic is a sure way of getting in debt. retail therapy a way of making yourself feel better by buying clothes or other goods. Will indulged in too much retail therapy last month and now cannot pay his credit card bill. save up to put money aside instead of spending it, especially in order to buy something in particular with it: Tom is saving up for a new car. security a something valuable that you agree to give to someone or to an organisation if you fail to pay back money borrowed from them: Clare has some shares in her father’s business that she can use as security against a bank loan. shopaholic a person who enjoys a shopping very much a person who does a great idea of shopping seems unable to stop doing so: Pam won’t admit that she’s a shopaholic although her house is full of purchases that she neither needed nor wanted. spree a short period of time during which you do a great deal of something which you enjoy doing very much, often involving spending only or drinking, but sometimes also involving criminal acts.

PARIS: The bonnethead shark, a small member of the hammerhead family, was long thought to be a strict carnivore that would occasionally ingest greens purely by accident.

Not so, scientists said on Wednesday. The bonnethead follows an omnivorous diet in which seagrass plays a key, nutritional role.

Although researchers have long known that Sphyrna tiburo eats copious quantities of seagrass, it was not believed to absorb any nutrients from it.

“Until now, most people thought that seagrass consumption was incidental when these sharks were hunting for crabs, etc. that live in the seagrass beds,” study co-author Samantha Leigh, an expert in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, told AFP.

Leigh and a team found, however, that seagrass can form up to 62 per cent of the bonnethead diet, alongside their preferred meal of crustaceans and molluscs.

“Bonnethead sharks are not only consuming copious amount of seagrass but they are actually capable of digesting and assimilating seagrass nutrients, making them clear omnivores,” the researchers wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“This is the first species of shark ever to be shown to have an omnivorous digestive strategy.”

Over the course of three weeks, the team conducted a series of lab-based trials in which they fed bonnethead sharks a diet of 90 per cent seagrass and 10 per cent squid.

They then analysed how much of the nutrients the animals digested, and how much they excreted.

Not all carnivores can digest plant material efficiently, but sharks fed the seagrass-heavy diet all gained weight, the team found.

The animals were found to be as good at digesting fibre and organic matter as young green sea turtles – a species that transforms from eating an omnivorous diet in youth to committed vegetarianism in adulthood.

VOCABULARY

hammerhead – a shark of tropical and temperate oceans that has flattened blade-like extensions on either side of the head, with the eyes and nostrils placed at or near the ends

omnivorous – (of an animal or person) feeding on a variety of food of both plant and animal origin.

copious – abundant in supply or quantity.

crustaceans – any of various types of animal that live in water and have a hard outer shell

molluscs – an invertebrate of a large phylum which includes snails, slugs, mussels, and octopuses. They have a soft unsegmented body and live in aquatic or damp habitats

assimilating – the absorption and digestion of food or nutrients by the body or any biological system.