USA Today has lately conducted a survey and asked Americans about their living standard. Under the survey 54% of population answered that their living standard isn’t better than it was 5 years ago. And just 45% hope that the situation will change when their children grow up. Such an opinion has formed because of the many factors that influence our economy. A lot of experts are interested if the economic situation will improve and when this improvement can happen.

One of the most impressive changes that is likely to occur is using “smaller things” by many Americans. It is revealed that in 2007 an average American family had a house twice as big is the previous generation family had had. Now there is a reverse tendency – Americans are turning back to smaller houses in the nearest 10 years. This tendency can be also viewed in the car industry. The manufacturers begin producing compact and small automobiles.

In order to struggle against economic crisis successfully Americans need to give up buying things they are used to. For example, in 1970’s articles like dishwashers or air conditioners could be found in few American houses and were a luxury for the people, nowadays practically every family beyond the poverty level has these “luxurious things” at home. As these articles are manufactured abroad, Americans don’t reinforce, but weaken national economy by dispensing US dollars to other countries.

Another problem, which Americans are dealing with, is the increasing unemployment and job losses. Such industries as car manufacturing and real estate are the ones which are mostly affected by this. Many experts suppose that the pre-crisis number of working places, particularly in these 2 industries, won’t restore in future. This will leave more than a million of Americans out of work and they will have to train for new professions in order to be employed again.

The industry of finance should adapt both to the economic recession and to the regulation changes, which have been happening to the industry recently. Lending companies, including Georges Promise and Paydayloanjr.com are constantly monitoring these changes in order they can continue providing American borrowers with short-term loans at the time when there is a lack of credit options for them. In California lending companies have already begun to accept unemployment checks instead of paying checks in return for payday loans or other cash loans.

Despite the fact that millions of Americans are trying to do their best to overcome the crisis, it is not the easiest thing to do. Only if the whole country can make the necessary significant corrections of their savings and spending, some positive changes may happen in the next 20-30 years.

When I was reading numerous articles about “consumer protection”, I remarked that all the authors propose to protect borrowers only by banning payday lending options. But I haven’t seen any article yet, in which payday lending opponents offer some other alternatives for the customers who can’t use payday lending services any more because of their elimination in the state.

I think that if authorities really want to protect customers and do it by banning payday lending industry, they are to propose credit alternatives to borrowers. I consider that before imposing such restrictions, legislators should examine the lending market and reveal the level of the demand for payday credit and other short-term financial products in these markets. In my opinion, firstly we should study how the regulation has affected economic situation in the other states, where new protection bills have been passed, and only then take some measures.

So, there are particular reasons for legislators not to consider these issues. Were they really care of consumer financial protection, they would examine the recent report, issued by the New York Federal Reserve, in which economic consequences of eliminating payday loans are described. In this report states, in which payday lending services are allowed, are compared with those states, where all payday lending operations are banned. For example, more complaints about debt collectors and lenders, more bounced checks, and a high amount of applications for bankruptcy protection were recorded in Georgia, the State where payday loans are eliminated.

Another fact which needs careful consideration is possibility of appearing fake lenders. Those customers who have previously borrowed loans from the web stores, which were regulated by the state and are likely to be banned soon, now will be looking for other credit options and may be taking loans with even higher interest rates from so-cold internet payday lenders, which activities are not regulated at all.

The legislators only seem to protect consumers, in reality they do nothing but aggravate financial problems of customers. Instead of banning payday lending industry, they would better study the advantages of payday loans or offer some interchangeable and efficient forms of short-term credit.