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Friday, July 29, 2011

CREDIT SCORES: THE BEAST IN EMBRYO?

My wife said something very thought-provoking this morning, something she does fairly often: she remarked on how, when we were growing up, there was no such thing as credit scores. This is true. It's also true that today it's increasingly hard to even get a job, never mind a mortgage, without a halfway-decent credit score. (Cars are something else; unless you want a high-end machine you can still count on credit somewhere to buy a functional auto)
I can understand the rationale behind credit scores: it saves banks and bankers lots of computer legwork and we can also keep track of the quality of our credit for those times when we really need it. These are not bad things in and of themselves, although I for one have NO desire to make things easier for banks or bankers right now; indeed I'm closer than ever to Tom Jefferson's opinion of banks, viz. "I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." This, however, is definitely not to say that this doesn't have the potential, like every other human creation, to become diabolically dangerous.
Look at what's happening today: not only is it hard to find even a job without a decent credit rating, but that can also apply if, so far, you haven't needed to use credit. In addition to which the revelation of how Standard & Poor's, during the past decade, essentially painted s**t gold, then rated it as gold and received profits from it being sold as such. To quote one of their execs to a staffer: "Let's hope we're all wealthy and retired before this house of cards collapses." This in 2006. So S & P knew what they were doing! With this in mind, what is to stop purveyors of credit from asking applicants their political or religious affiliations and using them as at least partial, but maybe crucial, factors in determining who gets credit and who doesn't? Not to mention race? Do we have any safeguards in place to prevent such a thing or at least give warning signals? My opinion is, such safeguards need to be part of a new regulation system for credit bureaus and rating agencies with hard-time penalties attached to violating them.
Remember the words of Revelation 13:16-17: "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free or slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." To some fringey folks, that's what barcodes uncomfortably resemble. But reading those lines now--just how far a leap is it from where we now are to no one being able to buy or sell--including their own skills--without such a mark of approval from credit rating agencies?? I know some people will think I've gone round the bend, but to them I have just questions, viz. Really? Why do you say that? I'm not saying this is so; all I'm doing is asking questions. Are you ready to ask and consider them? And that's all I'm encouraging anybody--and everybody--to do: consider these questions.