Some More News - SMN: Maybe Credit Scores Shouldn't Be A Thing?

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Hi. In today's episode, we look at how credit scoring bureaus were originally created to track debt (among other things) in America, how they've evolved into a bad-faith tactic for the rich to exert control over poor people, and how we need to revamp the entire system so we're not using an arbitrary number to evaluate a person's worth. A human being's worth not being tied to money? Imagine that! SOURCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18g_gX_mBTokOWkwdtN_MhG10YPxZHZ0dbDlHDALyhYw/edit?usp=sharing  Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews  Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949  SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh    Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  Get your money's worth at https://EXPRESSVPN.com/MORENEWS to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free!  

Hello! Welcome to the Cody Showdy. I'm... hungry. I should have gone grocery shopping after all that grocery burning I did. Got a haunted fridge. Like in the Ghostbusters! No, not that one. Or that one. Or... I don't remember which, actually. Who cares? The point is, I was right and normal to burn my groceries. You get it.

God, my stomach is so empty. Also my wallet. Turns out renter's insurance doesn't cover ghost appliances. It is wild how the system screws you like that. What's up, Puddin' Pud? Did someone say system screws? Ooh wee, I love that EDM band. Oh dang, hey Katie, can I get a sandwich, too?

Mm. I will totally get you back. Oh, let me check. Oh, sorry. No. Wait, why? I've been ever so good. Yeah, but your sandwich score, it's too low.

I can't risk it. Sandwich score? That sounds fake. Nope, nope, totes real. It determines your sandwich worthiness, and according to your report, your score is oof, yeah. See, you got a rhino in a diaper. Really looks like you just drew that. Yeah, I mean, like, I could have given you at least a little bite if you were at least at, like, a squirrel holding a knife or higher, but unfortunately you're just too much of a

pachyderm poop risk. I am not a poop risk! Yeah, that's what they all say. Look, all you need to know is your sandwich is denied. This report checks your fartcore sandwich score on Hoagie Loner, Stockwitch, Grinder with an E, and Investo Panini and they all came out rhino in a diaper. Well, not Hoagie Loner. They give you a horse with a CPAP machine. Is that bad? Mmm! Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!

Delicious! Really, I wish you could try it, but, you know. Credit scores shouldn't be a thing. Oh, maybe if I swallow enough spit, it'll make me feel full. Credit scores shouldn't be a thing. Maybe if I swallow enough spit, it'll make me feel full. Anyway, here's some news. I guess we're talking about credit scores. It sounds thrilling and or sexy.

Now, if you're watching this, you might have an idea of what a credit score and credit history report are and how they work. But in reality, 40% of you probably don't. Don't be ashamed, I'm literally right there with you. But of course, you've at least heard of them because you probably have a credit card. Hell, you might even have a credit card

that you didn't ask for. Your bank may have given you one when you opened up an account during high school or college, or perhaps you heard about credit scores and reports when you got student loans or a mortgage, or that time you got a business loan to sell erotic candles. Something it turns out, you don't need an entire mall store space to do.

Still in the hole from that one. In the hole was coincidentally also the name of our most popular candle scent. Or maybe you found out about your credit score for the first time when it got messed up after your identity got stolen, sometimes by your own family. Like if you had an evil twin brother named Bodhi.

But maybe, just maybe, you heard of your credit score when you needed a few bucks until your next payday. And just give an official definition, a credit score is a three digit number ranging from 300 to 850, because a more recognizable range from zero to 10 is, I guess, too transparent for regular people to interpret. The higher your score, supposedly,

the more likely you will be able to pay your lender back, which in the end could determine more favorable interest rates and deals. The formula for determining these scores is through FICO and Vantage Score, in which Vantage Score system was originally ranging from 501 to 990, but has since adopted FICO's 300 to 850 scoring range because beats this guy.

These scores are determined through your payment history, how much debt you currently owe and have paid off in the past, the types of accounts you have, the age of those accounts, and other factors like handsomeness, maybe, or not. I'm not really a money guy, you know? Also, both FICO and VantageScore

weigh these factors differently. So you often can have two different credit scores. Cool and not confusing stuff. Now, usually there isn't too much of a difference between the scores, but a handful of points could determine whether or not a lender will approve you for a loan if you're on the fringe, depending on which score your lender prefers or if they take both into account.

A discrepancy could help determine whether you're a squirrel with a knife and a sandwich or just a starving rhino in a diaper. I think. Maybe. I already have a headache. But that could be from the hunger. Hiya T tummy-tums. Getting some feedback from our focus group

that you're bumming people out. So maybe try to be less confused and desperate. We have a focus group? Mm-hmm. That's what I call my brain cells. Okay, good talk. Cool, thanks. Okay, so let's talk about why credit scores exist

in the first place, but in a not desperate or confusing way, I guess. Now, despite the fact that money is one of them make-em-ups, I guess it's technically a good idea to find a way to gauge whether a person can eventually pay you back in earnest when you loan them money. Sure, if I had a lot of money and gave it to people, but wanted it back, that would be a thing I'd want to exist.

But the power that credit scores have for determining whether you can, God forbid, advance in modern society has gone far past that singular purpose. Like, okay, you might need a credit score to get a decent car to get to your job, but depending on what state you live in, a credit score could determine whether you get that job at all. to get to your job, but depending on what state you live in, a credit score could determine

whether you get that job at all. Credit scores hold so much power over the fate of Americans that it prevented a congressman from getting approved for an apartment to do his job in DC. Although in fairness, congresspeople are pretty sketchy most days, so that actually checks out. So how did we get here?

Well, let's time our way back to the year 1989. The Berlin Wall just fell. Michael Keaton became Batman, and it was seven years before Michael Keaton became multiplicity. Also, he was in the Dream Team. This was also the year that credit scores, as we know them today, rose to existence.

That's right, all of us answer to a concept that's younger than me if I were slightly younger. And I'm, you know, I'm pretty young and spry. But let's go back a bit further to the lead up of how our government mom and economy dad birthed this little brother that will likely inherit the Johnston family fortune,

even though they aren't technically the first born. I mean, you never cared about the money. You cared about getting the attention and affection, Bodhi, credit scores always seem to get from your parents. I don't have an evil twin, okay? Anyway, the modern concept of debt is over 5,000 years old. And because we don't want our videos to go for three hours usually,

let's fast forward, we'll rewind but less, to the 1800s. See, around then, most storekeepers asked for loans through neighbors and friends vouching for them to their bank. It was just as convenient as it sounds, and in the 1830s, merchants kept overextending their credit to the point of causing an economic depression. However, in 1841, a merchant named Louis Tappan

set out to collect reports of various debtors' characters and assets by exploiting his abolitionist connections across the country. He was sort of like an abolitionist Batman. No, this Batman, but also that first Batman too. A rich guy that worked in the shadows for good by keeping creepy surveillance on everybody. Tappan kept these rumors and reports in his ledgers

at the mercantile agency in New York City, working as this gossip girl dark knight, but for money stuff. XOXO Gotham Girl. As you probably can imagine, because it's the 1800s in the United States of America, many of these reports were made by white male reporters in favor of white male debtors,

and were riddled with bias against persons of color, women, and the lower class. One post-Civil War report referred to a liquor store as a lowly Negro shop, and another from New York made sure to note that prudence in large transactions with all Jews should be used. Woof, oof, ew, yuck. Woof, oof, ew, ew, yuck, all together.

And of course, as well. By the 1870s, Tapan's mercantile agency had over 10,000 correspondents in its network and over 2000 volumes of credit reports, collecting them all just like those Pokemon cards, Squirtle, the racist one, and Trump haired ferret, I think. Look, I don't know all the names, just those three, which I nailed.

Everything regarding the mercantile agency was very clandestine with reporters being identified by initials or numbers and not full names. It was so cloak and dagger that during a libel lawsuit, the head of the agency was thrown in jail for contempt after refusing to identify an agency correspondent. It was also around this time when several other credit reporting bureaus,

all modeled after Tappan's, popped up. They were the Pepsi, RC Cola, Professor Beverage, and Poppin' Brown Elixir to Tappan's Coca-Cola. This was when personal finance companies, retailers, and utility companies started to use them to vouch for potential debtors. Shortly after, real estate companies, the Federal Housing Administration, and even the, of course, cops,

started using them to get dirt on people. Surveillance was no longer for just matters of basic trade and commerce. In fact, many credit reports got into more than just the finances or age or gender or race of the people within them. Not that they should have been documenting any of that, but Atlanta's retail credit company compiled information

on millions of Americans since 1889, which included collecting data about the social, political, and sexual lives of people. It's like Facebook and Twitter, but unlike social media, the populace didn't just hand them this info. They had to work for it. You hear that, Mark? You lazy bum patooey, Mark.

Go work harder. Actually, don't work harder. Work less on the things you do. Quit your job, Mark. The company was heavily criticized for decades, but reached a hate peak in the 1960s when they announced they were computerizing their files. They were so unpopular to the public

that they were forced to rebrand and rename themselves as Equifax in 1975. That name change would of course work perfectly as the brand Equifax would in no way be associated with the follies of computerizing credit information. But at the time, people were less concerned with data leaks. In 1968, the New York Times published an article expressing concern over the credit bureaus digitization

of their private files, focusing on the fact that past mistakes could haunt them for the rest of their lives. Anger from consumers forced Congress to act. And in 1970, they passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This legislation required credit bureaus to open their files to the public while expunging all data on race, sexuality, and disability,

while also deleting negative information after a specified period of time. And dare I say, good, good job 1970s Congress. Give your feathered hair a congratulatory flitter. This ultimately led to the main credit bureaus consolidating under one industry standard credit score algorithm created by the Fair, Isaac,

and Company, now known as FICO, in 1989. The same year when basketball legend and Veronica Mars reboot writer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retired from the NBA. Coincidence? Definitely. Not even sure why I would bring him up actually. I guess I'm just, I'm so hungry. So we're going to talk about how this modern version

of credit scores is still, big gasp, bad. But first, can we go to ads now? I need to take care of something. Something involving my spit. A meal. Hello, cruel world. You know, watching streaming video without ExpressVPN is a lot like paying for a gym membership,

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Okay, welcome back. We were talking about the history of credit scores, but now we're going to get into how it impacts you, my delicious viewers. Look at you all, slowly fading into the image of a cartoon turkey leg. Great stuff. So how do you find out your credit score?

Well, from these chuckle dicks. Remember Equifax from earlier? Well, they dickle their chucks alongside Experian and TransUnion as the top three credit reporting bureaus in the country in which you can annually check your score for free. I stress on annually since if you wanna check your score again within less than a year,

you or another approved party will likely have to pay for that. In pro wrestling terms, think of it like you're wrestling against a loan application with the FICO score being the steel cage and your referees are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. But if you already wrestled earlier in the year, you're going to have to pay the refs to see if it's worth even getting into the ring

or if you'd get your skull slammed against the FICO cage, causing your forehead to bleed. That sounds like a ham-fisted analogy, but it's actually pretty apt because your credit report, which could potentially gatekeep whether you can get decent housing and a job on top of regular loans for high ticket essential items,

is absolutely determined by people that are just as proficient in their jobs as WWE referees. Credit reporting company Equifax sent lenders incorrect credit scores last spring for millions of customers. That's according to a Wall Street Journal report. Some scores changing by as much as 20 points

in either direction. It was enough for some prospective borrowers to be rejected for a loan. Hey now, that's not good. That was just last year and it's not the only time these clown wads were caught distracted and hit with a folding chair. Again, I stand by my wrestling analogy.

Except at least pro wrestling is fixed with referees that are scripted to be bumbling turd wits. Also in wrestling, those refs don't decide if you are going to be hit with potential poverty and homelessness. So, okay, I guess my analogy wasn't good after all, but you. And even if it's not the fault of credit bureaus,

there are other ways your credit score can be damaged for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Having your identity stolen, for one, puts marks on your credit score that can possibly hurt you later on. Identity thieves don't just screw up credit scores of adults, but children as well. While credit scores aren't traditionally given

until a person is 18 years old, minors can still get a credit history if they are named and given access to their parents' credit cards, or if some identity thief opens up a credit line in their name. Since most people don't think their kid is going to open up lines of credit or apply for loans, unless your baby is Boss Baby,

it could be years before parents see that their child's credit history, A, exists, and B, is fucked. That is, unless it's the parents themselves that stole their child's identity, which they sometimes do when the kid's a college-age baby, college baby, in production, probably. But hey, all of that aside,

at least these credit scores were created to offset prejudice, right? Remember how that was the point of them in the first place? And so sure, you know, there are modern risks because there always will be, but at least credit scores level that playing field, he said, having read the script in advance and knowing full well that it isn't true. Wait, I'm supposed to read these in advance? Whoopsie. So yeah, a study from 2004 through 2008 done by the Economic Policy Institute showed data that black and Latino borrowers were three times as likely

to end up with higher mortgage rates than white people, even if they had the same credit scores as their white counterparts. And this isn't just limited to getting decent housing. In 2015, Honda was forced to pay $24 million in a race discrimination lawsuit after US regulators found the company was charging black and Latino applicants higher interest rates on car loans than whites.

A year later, Toyota had to pay nearly $22 million for the exact same thing, with federal agencies saying Toyota charged their applicants of color 100 to $200 more than white buyers with similar credit. It's an overall problem for loans in general. A 2017 report from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection found that, quote, "'Black applicants were rejected

"'at more than double the rate "'of non-Hispanic white applicants on all types of loans. The overall rate of denials of mortgage applications from blacks was 18.4% last year, with 13.5% for Hispanics and 10.6% for Asians. For non-Hispanic whites, it was 8.8%. And according to 2019 data from Markup, mortgage lenders were 40% more likely

to turn down Latino applicants for loans, 50% more likely to deny Asian Pacific Islander applicants, and 70% more likely to deny Native American applicants than similar white applicants. Lenders were 80% more likely to reject black applicants than similar white applicants. But how can this be? While the Honda and Toyota lawsuits were very direct racism

involving people physically at the dealership being super duper discriminated against, race isn't taken into account with credit scores, right? I mean, those are just numbers in a file. How can numbers be racist? I mean, four kind of looks like it's wearing a clan hood if you draw it like this instead of this, but other than that, it shouldn't factor in. And yes, technically it's wearing a clan hood if you draw it like this instead of this, but other than that, it shouldn't factor in.

And yes, technically it's not a factor, but do you know what is? Home ownership. Living in a home in a more expensive neighborhood provides equity, collateral, and is overall more appealing to lenders. Many people of color are still contending with redlining, a rating system established by the Homeowners Loan Corp

that designated black neighborhoods as too much of a risk for mortgage lending. We actually talked about that back in our episode about car genitals or whatever, and how highways were built around those borders. Now, redlining has been prohibited for over 50 years thanks to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, but studies show that neighborhoods of color

are still dealing with its lingering effects. Removing redlining after it has impacted generations of wealth or lack thereof, doesn't magically make those neighborhoods worth more in equity and collateral. It's one of those concepts that gets used to conveniently overlook or even dismiss systemic racism. If you're an obtuse enough straw man,

you can take something like this BBC article about how climate change affects non-white communities more and make reductive claims like, "'The left thinks the weather is racist.'" But the actual claim there is that black or non-white communities have been neglected in terms of repairs and infrastructure that makes them more vulnerable to flooding

and hurricanes and such. Similarly, that's what we're saying here. Credit ratings aren't racist the same way weather isn't racist, but institutional racism in America has made it so that black communities were devalued just because of who lived there. And that devaluation affects credit scores. And of course, this creates a spiral.

We did a whole video, so many videos we do, about this cycle of poverty and how it's built so that you can't escape it. The American South, for example, has the lowest credit scores compared to the rest of the country. That's a region that has the highest rates of poverty and lowest incomes.

This is in part due to people in the South having the most unpaid medical debt. According to the Urban Institute, out of the top 100 counties with the highest share of adults struggling with medical debt, 92 of them were from the South. And with more of their unpaid medical bills

being sent to collection agencies, the lower their credit scores get, further limiting their options for upward mobility. Now, there have been studies and legislation, including action from the Biden administration to remove medical debts $500 and under from credit reports, which it does help sort of $500, but an analysis by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

showed that these changes didn't really do much for people who truly need reform. Since most unpaid medical debt blows the hell past the $500 threshold and the changes make little difference to people with low incomes and persons of color. It cleans up some of the mess, but in finance terms, it's still tone deaf to the bigger problem.

Kind of like throwing paper towels to hurricane victims. Just an imaginary scenario I just made up right now. Credit scores aren't just a class problem though, but a generational one, holding back millennials and Gen Z in particular. Hey, remember that elected Gen Z Congressman that was denied a DC apartment due to bad credit? He's super not the only one.

While both millennials and Gen Z's credit scores have boosted within this decade, they are both lagging way behind older generations, with Gen Z having an average credit score of 674 and millennials having an average score of 679, which in a sandwich score means... To duck with a pitcher of orange juice? I don't know.

And neither do the credit bureaus, since a 679 can be considered a fair or good score depending on which bureau is consulted. Nearly a third of adults aged 18 to 25 are living at home permanently, partially due to bad credit and high rental application fees that include a credit check.

These fees are non-refundable and can cost hundreds of dollars. That's money that could have been used for drugs. Exactly. And fancy cheeses. And boy, I'm hungry. And while we're on the subject of renting apartments, why do credit scores even need to be involved?

It's not like renters are paying to eventually own the property and the risk of renting apartments. Why do credit scores even need to be involved? It's not like renters are paying to eventually own the property, and the risk goes both ways. Landlords are taking a risk on a tenant not missing payments or damaging their property, but renters are taking a risk that the apartment they pay for won't be neglected and isn't illegal.

That imbalance hasn't gone unnoticed, mind you, and the federal government is actually trying to step in because it's not like renters are in a position to ask for a landlord's credit history. The entire dynamic when it comes to renting apartments is extremely one-sided. It's almost as if we live in a system designed to favor wealthy people and property owners.

E-gads, e-gads, he says a second time. E-gads, he says a third time says a second time, e-gads he says a third time louder. Now there are new policies in place that let on-time rent payments help boost credit scores, but those aren't automatically reported and would rely on landlords themselves to help report these on-time payments to credit bureaus, which based on how it took four months

before my landlord had my garbage disposal fixed and even then he just taped knives on the top of my trash can, I'm sure they would be super motivated to do. The disposal was haunted, had to set it on fire. On top of that, many renters don't even know how to report these on-time payments themselves and are justifiably worried that their landlord

could do the opposite and hurt their credit score if they reported a rent payment late. So ultimately, just seems like something that shouldn't be tied to credit scores. And while I'm sure all the boomers watching this on the YouTube box are thinking that all these youngins, and by youngins, I mean people in their 30s and 40s, just need to get a better job,

well, that's apparently another thing you need good credit for. A 2021 survey of human resource professionals found that credit or financial checks are included in 51% of employer background screenings in the U.S. Survey data from 2012 showed that among low to middle income households, one in four were asked for a credit report as a part of their job application. And out of those who had bad marks on their credit report, one in seven were told that they were not being hired due to their credit. You know, the thing they need money to improve. And while 11 states and some major cities have put laws in place to limit employer credit checks,

some major cities have put laws in place to limit employer credit checks, that's not enough states. It seems like all the states should have those protections. And of course, the credit bureaus are doing their best to keep it this way. In 2010, Oregon was set to pass a law to put such restrictions on employers, but TransUnion sent then Director of Government Relations, Eric Rosenberg, to testify how these credit checks help prevent employers from hiring potential thieves,

fraudsters, and people with goopy hands that want to touch all your stuff. With goop! What is the evidence that there's a strong correlation between accessing an applicant's credit history and eventual problems of loss to the employer or to the clients, I guess, in that case. I would say that at this point, we don't have any research to show any statistical correlation between what's in somebody's credit report and their job performance or their likelihood to commit fraud. If there's high outstanding debt, sure, that doesn't mean that correlates to somebody to fraud. But given all things equal between two or three job applicants,

if a person has a high amount of debt versus somebody who doesn't, and all things other being equal, well, maybe they wanna consider that in their lack of paying those debts off, what that means. Compelling, goopless argument about how people with debt are less good than other people. And yet TransUnion couldn't find any evidence or correlation of how credit checks can prevent deceptive and fraudulent practices by employees.

Maybe they should start by looking at their own company, given that they were sued last year for deceptive and fraudulent practices by them. But of course, no, there is no evidence that having low credit or high or any debt makes you a bad employee, because of course it doesn't. A 2011 study conducted by researchers

from Louisiana State University, Northern Illinois University, and Texas Tech University showed no correlation between credit history and deviant workplace behaviors such as theft. Yet in spite of the lack of evidence, there would still be people turned down for jobs because of their poor credit, which leads them to not being able to pay bills,

which just leads their credit to get even worse. Everyday jobs that don't even involve finances like retail, security guards, and basic entry-level positions that have nothing to do with handling money. Much like with landlords, employees aren't asking for money from their employer. They're earning it.

There's no logical reason for credit history to be involved in a person's hiring. And again, it's not like job applicants are in a position to see their potential employer's credit score to make sure that they can pay them on time and or fairly. So this is completely one-sided and nonsensical. But even if bad credit meant you were an evil person that evilly evils everything they touch

until it turns evil, credit reports themselves aren't always accurate. According to a federal trade commission study, one in five consumers had an error on one of their credit reports. So like, what do you do if you find a mistake on a credit report? Well, we will explore that after I feast upon

my inner mouth cheek flesh to stave off the ravenous rage within my tum tum during these ads. Ow. Go ads, go! Ow. Ow. Ow. Hey friends.

Sexy friends. Listen, the news isn't easy, nor is it very fun. And that's why a lot of my job is just finding ways to trap Cody at his house so he won't stop reading the news. Giving him pills to make him confused and sad. Filling his car with pasta. Limiting his motor skills with a series of injections. The point is

we can't do it without support from viewers like yourself. And that's why I want to tell you about our Patreon. That's patreon.com slash some more news to support this show and even get a bunch of exclusive rewards. You can get access to our Discord community or a special producer credit or even hang out with me and Cody. We're like pretty cool, right? You like us?

Sure you do. You like us. And so if you're able to, we would be very thankful for any support because that is how we exist. So once again, that's patreon.com slash some more news. Do it to trap Cody. You don't want to let Cody out, do you? I'm gonna assume you said no. Hey, welcome back! Fun fact, uncooked human cheek meat is not tasty, but it will keep you from starving,

despite the pain. So here's another fact, butooked human cheek meat is not tasty, but it will keep you from starving despite the pain. So here's another fact, but in question form. Let's say your credit is bad. Maybe you missed a couple of payments or, you know, we're just born in the wrong place. First of all, shame on you. And secondly of all, how do you fix that? Well, the best way to build your credit back

is to make your payments on time, pay down your debt, and keep any open credit cards between 0% and 30% of their credit limit. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not here to give you financial advice. You gotta go to my yurt seminars for that. No, I'm here to point out how up this all is. Like how even if the debt is paid in full,

most negative marks will remain on your report for at least seven years. And if you notice some mistakes on your credit report due to identity theft or an error from the chuckle dicks, your only way to report it is by filling out forms, sending a letter through certified mail, explaining the error and requesting that it be removed. The credit bureau then has 30 days to respond

and fix the error unless they deem your investigation to be frivolous or irrelevant. The credit bureaus may also pass the buck over to the business that reported this inaccurate information to them. Then you would have to contact them with a similar dispute letter to get that business to correct their mistake on their end to the credit bureau.

And if that creditor doesn't recognize the mistake, this process can just ping pong between the two entities for years. In short, none of it works. And in fact, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found that Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have all quote, "'habitually failed to resolve consumer complaints

about inaccurate credit reports. And that's probably on purpose, because hey, don't worry, there are of course credit repair companies available that will do all of this stuff for you at around $50 to $100 per month, assuming you find a reputable one, which I would argue none of them are.

Because this is all by design, much like how our tax system is purposefully and needlessly confusing and expensive so that companies like TurboTax can take advantage, the credit system in this country is an industry designed to prey on poor and desperate people. Going back to the original idea of credit, as in keeping track of debt,

and we couldn't be further from that goal at this point. It's even completely counterintuitive to that goal. Let's say you're a person who was lucky enough to have the ability to pay for everything they had in cash deep into adulthood. Let's call this imaginary person Jeff. All right, lucky hairless Jeff. And because Jeff is so rich and hairless,

like a Pharaoh's Sphinx cat, he wouldn't need to take out a loan or get a credit card, which would quite ironically mean that Jeff would have bad credit. I'm sure many of you realize this and have experienced it, but it can't be understated that having no debt actually hurts your credit score. You are expected in this society to put yourself into debt

in order to have a good rating. One that might affect whether or not you get a loan, or an apartment, or a job, or a home, or a car. In other words, the system we have is specifically designed to keep you in debt for your entire life. Hey, hey, hey, Bickle Bottom, great news! I found the problem on your sandwich report. It seems like someone named Theobor Philbertz

gave you a PB&J and you never got him back? Fartbert? That was in fourth grade, and per our pinky swear agreement, I shared my Dunkaroos with him the following day. Do they still make those? Uh. Katie, Katie, Katie!

Do they still make those? Damn, she's gone. Okay, final question. How do we fix this? The only good news is that both sides of the political spectrum seem to agree that our credit system sucks. So we can just blow up all the credit companies

to the ground so everyone's credit score goes down to zero, but it's probably a mistake to base your ideas and ideals from the movie Fight Club or the worst book of the same name, Fight Club, for now, because there are some easier, not explosive solutions. For example, we could just give people money. Now, this sounds like no good pinko nonsense to some people, maybe to some people named Jeff,

who would complain about that money being used for non-necessities and causing inflation. But when the government sent out stimulus checks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, have you heard of it? Roughly over a third of the money sent to Americans was used to pay debt. So it's not like people don't want to pay off their debt.

They just can't most of the time. Of course, we're not gonna do that. We can't bet on three economist ghosts visiting every member of Congress in the Senate on Christmas Eve to make that happen. So we should look at other options. For example, maybe we just don't have credit scores, like at all.

Japan doesn't have a credit scoring system and instead how much credit consumers receive is between them and their bank, usually factoring in the applicant's salary, length of employment, and other such data. And with that system, Japan has just as many credit card holders as the US. France also doesn't have a central crediting bureau

or a credit score system. In order to get a loan from a bank in that country, France, you just provide three months worth of bank statements and pay stubs. And you know, who are we to question that system? Because if you look at household debt as a share of GDP, America is near the top and countries in the European Union are more towards the bottom.

In other words, debt plays a much smaller role there, including credit card debt. Because of course, of course this is an American problem, but that's not to put the blame squarely on the credit reporting. After all, almost all the countries in the EU have some form of universal healthcare and have well-funded and viable means of transportation

for the public. They also have cheap or free education that also happens to be better in quality. Also, when you get kicked in the genitals overseas, it doesn't hurt and candy comes out of your butthole. You get the point, that's how things are elsewhere. Other countries have their own problems for sure. But America really sucks in a specific way

that's designed to keep poor people poor and rich people rich. For example, while living and buying a house in Europe isn't the cheapest, it is still cheaper than the US, leading many Americans to move overseas because the government sucks here. It's terrible. You know this.

That's why you're watching this show. I mean, unless you died and the algorithm brought you here while your body sat slumped in front of your screen, which our analytics tells me is actually a big part of our viewership. We're huge with the 18 to 34 cadaver demo. Worms eating my flesh, such pain, am I right? Relatable.

My point here is that we act like credit scores are a reflection of the individual, but they are actually a reflection of the society in which that individual lives. If we've created a framework where a person's ability to survive is based on this magic number, and while that alone is pretty messed up, it's also extremely telling that right now in America, debt is at an all-time high. That's not a reflection of our citizens,

but of our terrible government, a system that has failed people so much that they have to borrow money all the time just to survive. That's what credit scores actually say about us, that we have been screwed over. So maybe another answer to our credit score and debt problem could be investing in the things that don't cause so many people to incur massive debt, which, you know, probably isn't gonna happen soon.

Politicians might understand that this is an issue, but their solution will likely be a bandaid compared to the systemic problems that caused the debt in the first place. Although, as we noted, this is a problem that has disproportionately affected younger generations that are now coming into power. So there's hope in the inevitability of time

as it plunges every living soul into the great oblivion, which I guess can be said about every problem, but I'm not here to solve, AKA destroy capitalism. At least not while I'm so hungry. So failing a revamp of our system, it sure would be swell if we just got rid of credit scores. Toss them out, we don't need them, get out of here. You're not in the room with me.

You're not actually sentient, so I can't yell at you, but get out of here. Because going back to the original idea of credit scores, the on paper concept that in a money-based society, we need to track debt, well, they don't do that. They never did. And in fact, the entire concept of credit has been from the 1800s to the 80s to today,

a bad faith tactic for rich people to exert control over the poor, a way to put a number behind a person's worth. That's what it's always been. Otherwise, it would have gone both ways. Otherwise, it would be used to reflect the failings of the powerful. And along with being a tool for the wealthy,

it's also been inefficient, racist, sexist, and just generally a thorn in everyone's side since forever AD. So get rid of it today if possible. Text me once you get rid of it, Joe Biden, because credit scores are just bad. They're unnecessary and cruel. Like.

Okay, so I have been going over your case, and I think we can get this resolved. First, you need to write me a letter in triplicate. Right, because you're the head of Hoagie Loaner. Yeah, you figured it out. Also Stockwich and Investo Panini. I run all three. So you made this all up. Right.

To help illustrate why credit scores are bad. Well, that and to bully school kids. Mostly to bully school kids. So can I have a sandwich now? Yes. Absolutely. I can mail you one. Expect it in three to six weeks.

Okay? Bye. Okay! Wow, a rare win for me. Is this a win? A sandwich in the mail in a month and a half? Why don't I feel like a winner? Probably put out that fridge fire soon. After I...

eat my Thai. Good. I do. Ah, vomit! Thanks for watching and subscribing to the channel and liking the video and leaving a nice comment for us. We've got a merch store with stuff on the merch. We've got a podcast called Even More News. You can listen to this show as a podcast

called Some More News. You know that, you just watched it. But the podcast version where all your podcasts can be on your phone or computer. I don't know how you listen to podcasts. Look, the point is, thanks for watching and I'm cranky because I didn't eat the Thai. And oh, we also have a patreon.com slash some more news,

which you could check out as well. And we are gonna go, I guess, get real food.