Maybe the answer is less reliance on a debt based economy. Maybe the answer is to not bake into the fabric of society a mechanism that makes a lifetime of debt a foregone conclusion. Kill the loan shark for all I care. Why does everyone need a loan? Because it’s built to require one.
In an economy where skill (supposedly) correlates to income, income is expected to increase across a lifetime.
Therefore 25 year-old me borrowing excess income from 45 year-old me is a good thing, purely egotistically.
Furthermore lack of debt means every big purchase is preceded by hoarding. No matter which way you look at it this is bad for society. If I had 50k€ laying around it would be much more efficient resource-wise to lend it to my neighbor so they can build up their business, than to keep the money under my mattress and tell them to tighten their belt for another five years. They get a business, I get a bit more money in the end, everyone is richer and the economy is stronger.
Economics are not a zero-sum game. This belief that “if someone is making money then someone else is getting robbed” is deeply damaging, especially as it seems to be the main economic driver for Trump’s batshit insane administration.
Debt is good. Predatory practices are not. That is what regulations are supposed to curtail. Where I live “credit scores” are not a thing, banks only loan to you based on proof of income, a declaration of open credit lines, and your civil status (age, partnership status, dependent people). Racism and sexism are of course an issue, although if caught the banks face big fines. But it’s not like American credit scores are colorblind…
Ok, so, telling lenders they cannot vet lenders is not reasonable.
Our critiques of credit scores does not automatically mean we want them abolished in favor the previous wink and a handshake.
But American credit scores don’t measure your likelihood to pay back debts, they measure the likelihood of a lender to make money off of you. Those are nearly, but not quite, the same thing, and our current system, as the previous poster said, leads to a lifetime of debt obligations.
What we want is for life to not be dependant on debt.
Maybe the answer is less reliance on a debt based economy. Maybe the answer is to not bake into the fabric of society a mechanism that makes a lifetime of debt a foregone conclusion. Kill the loan shark for all I care. Why does everyone need a loan? Because it’s built to require one.
As a person with very little debt, this is the way.
In an economy where skill (supposedly) correlates to income, income is expected to increase across a lifetime.
Therefore 25 year-old me borrowing excess income from 45 year-old me is a good thing, purely egotistically.
Furthermore lack of debt means every big purchase is preceded by hoarding. No matter which way you look at it this is bad for society. If I had 50k€ laying around it would be much more efficient resource-wise to lend it to my neighbor so they can build up their business, than to keep the money under my mattress and tell them to tighten their belt for another five years. They get a business, I get a bit more money in the end, everyone is richer and the economy is stronger.
Economics are not a zero-sum game. This belief that “if someone is making money then someone else is getting robbed” is deeply damaging, especially as it seems to be the main economic driver for Trump’s batshit insane administration.
Debt is good. Predatory practices are not. That is what regulations are supposed to curtail. Where I live “credit scores” are not a thing, banks only loan to you based on proof of income, a declaration of open credit lines, and your civil status (age, partnership status, dependent people). Racism and sexism are of course an issue, although if caught the banks face big fines. But it’s not like American credit scores are colorblind…
Ok, so, telling lenders they cannot vet lenders is not reasonable.
Our critiques of credit scores does not automatically mean we want them abolished in favor the previous wink and a handshake.
But American credit scores don’t measure your likelihood to pay back debts, they measure the likelihood of a lender to make money off of you. Those are nearly, but not quite, the same thing, and our current system, as the previous poster said, leads to a lifetime of debt obligations.
What we want is for life to not be dependant on debt.
That was a great writeup. I see that “someone earning money hurts everyone else” mentality on Lemmy constantly, its maddeningly stupid.