The credit score- Let's get realistic about what it is and what it is not

I logged on to yahoo this morning, as I do every morning, to check my e mail and I saw something that compelled me to write this hub and put in my 2 cents.

I live in Flint, Michigan, which is, in my opinion, ground zero for the recession. Parts of this city look like a film makers idea of what the end of the world would look like. Everywhere you look around here, there are abandoned buildings, boarded up and open, junk, peeling paint, and these huge open spaces where there was once an automotive related plant or warehouse. I was born here, and spent the better part of my childhood in Genesee county, so I remember only too well how this city and county looked in the glory days of GM, and when there were people here who gave a damn. ( I am NOT saying that all the good people are gone from this area, that everyone who is still here does not care, but the number of them is shrinking- It makes me wonder sometimes where all this crap is leading us, but that is fodder for another hub).

Because of the economic issues that we face in this nation, the United States, there is a huge number of people who have had to face the fact that their credit rating has been downgraded. Some a little and some who's credit rating looks like it had been nuked. I can understand why, being the thinking man that I am, lenders would like to have some sort of indicator to get an idea of the way a person pays back their debts, good or bad. That is only common sense, because nobody likes to, or wants to, lose money. All that is perfectly understandable by anyone who has a 5th grade idea about the way an economy operates. The wild departure from reality happens when one's credit rating is used to determine unrelated things such as how well a person drives, how they would perform a job, or any number of other bullshit reasons big business gives when questioned about this issue. It makes my blood boil that there are people out there who would use a credit rating to determine suitability as a prospective spouse or life partner. I will not deny that good credit makes life a whole lot easier, but, and here is where the departure starts, a credit rating is not a yardstick to measure a person's character, what kind of driver they are, what kind of worker they would be, etc. I think that the money grubbing SOBs who come up with these new uses of a number, know there is no connection, but gives them a reason to just charge more in interest, ( to the point of robbery, I have seen credit card offers with an APR of 29% and up), more in insurance premiums, both in auto and health, and more in fees that can be charged. I have even heard of a person's credit score being used, as I have mentioned earlier, as a basis for determining what kind of spouse or partner a person would make. ( I am sure that there are some people reading this who will think, and perhaps even comment on, the reasons that it is a good indicator of suitability. There is no connection, and they are full of shit, I think.)

Is that the level we have sunk to in our culture, and this nation? That what kind of person they are on the inside has no relevance, when making decisions about who to share your life with? Too much importance has been attached to this number. If you read world history, you will see the reasons that the Roman Empire fell apart, after ruling most of the known world for the better part of a thousand years, and the effect that the fall of Rome had on Europe. Turn the page and read about how the next era in human history was known as the dark ages, and how long it took to recover and move forward again. Is that what we are? Is that where we are headed as a nation?