Although the man's company was called something like the Small-Amount Funds Turnover Company, Heath was an adult with experience in society, and he knew very well what companies with names like that generally did. To put it nicely, they were finance companies; less politely, they were really lending companies. Heath did not know whether this company operated legally and compliantly, though, and its interest rates were another question. He had to admit that in today's society, people's ability to save money had declined considerably, while their ability to spend it had risen dramatically.
A phone that people would often have had to grit their teeth and save several months' wages to justify buying could now be theirs whenever they wanted, thanks to all the financial products available. The price, however, was usually all sorts of interest, service charges, and the like. Merchants' advertising also made it increasingly difficult for people to control their spending, leaving many in debt almost as soon as they started working. The proportion of people living paycheck to paycheck kept rising, and they could even plan out which debts they needed to repay before their wages arrived.
This had also given rise to people whose pay vanished the moment they received it. As soon as their wages came in, every last bit went toward repayments. But that forced those workers to keep borrowing to get by, leaving them deeper and deeper in debt. Every worker knew that when they owed money, they hardly dared quit their job. They were just like those middle-aged workers with elderly parents and young children to support: even if their managers tore into them, they had to swallow their pride and smile, doing their best to keep their jobs.
Having debts but no savings was not a very good financial position.