sama asked: > Ask HN: What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone? good financial services for very poor people in developed countries. the basi

sama asked: > Ask HN: What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone? good financial services for very poor people in developed countries. the basic financial services that middle class and wealthy people have access to such as checking accounts, savings accounts, retail brokerages for purchasing investing vehicles (stocks, bonds, etfs, etc.), access to consumer credit that does not have usurious rates and predatory practices, tax filing assistance, direct deposit of paychecks, automated scheduled bill payments, access to in-network or no-fee ATMs, ability to build up good credit history and have a high FICA score, etc. all of these things that the middle and upper classes totally take for grant as basic infrastructure necessary for modern life are things that very poor people are almost completely shut out of. this is a HUGE driver of persistent poverty in already poor communities. this is one of the things that makes climbing up out of poverty almost impossible for so many people. a startup attempting to solve these problems would have to be willing to experiment with totally new business models that do not directly rely on exploitation of the customers to generate profits. it might be a lower margin business than, for example, commercial banking. it would be a great social good though, and it might even be possible to make a profitable business out of it too. edit: expanding on my point an important component of sama's query is "increase prosperity for everyone". how does providing financial services for the very poor help everyone? simple: it increases demand at the base of the economy. very poor people have almost no discretionary spending money and often end up as net drains on local economies, taking in money from government assistance programs while not contributing back to the economic growth of their communities. if the poorest people become less poor they begin to buy things with their newly available discretionary spending money.