The Credit Game

 In 2022 I was working a fairly decent job. It paid well and had benefits. It had it's low points as well. It was a pretty standard American Job except good pay and decent bennies

And one day, driving home after work, something really weird happened with my car. The rear end did some really funny things. Fortunately I was on a secondary road and not going very fast. I got out and looked and could not figure out what was going on.

Fortunately I was only a few miles from my house and was just coming into town. So I threw on my hazards and taking it slowly drove back to my house.

I put the back end into the air and looked and I could see that a very important piece of rear end stabilization had literally torn. Inch thick metal had corroded enough, New England after all, that the metal had deteriorated enough to tear in half.

I looked it up and fixing that would have cost more than the vehicle was worth. And I did not have that much cash readily available. Ugh...

So, I went and bought a car. It was a really nice used car. And I was really surprised to find that I had a good enough credit score to get a not terrible rate on that car. Well cool beans man.

A few years later, in 2024, my life changed and it did not take me long to understand that I was not going to be able to meet my obligations with this car. IE, I was going to default on the payments. I did not want that, it was just the way things shook out.

At this point I had not yet missed any payments. I was about 4 days away from a payment that I was not going to be able to make. I did not want it to go into overdue etc.

So I called the company that financed the deal and explained things and told them I would take the car wherever they wanted or they could come get it. Whatever they wanted. And they tried to get me to refinance again. And no matter how much I explained things they kept trying to get me to refinance. I finally said I would call them again in three months and hung up.

For the next almost two years I called every three months and explained things and they tried to get me to refinance. I would hang up and wait three more months.

Rinse and repeat.

Then, last week, I got a phone call from an unknown number, which I, of course, did not answer. And they left a voicemail. And, while they did not say what they wanted, they did say who they were. So I looked them up via the search engine and they were car recovery specialist.

So I called back and we talked. And they found me an outfit here who could come get it and said they would call me on Monday. This was a Friday.

They called me on Monday, and this Morning, Tuesday, came and got it.

And there she was on the way out. I liked that car and wish things had been different. C'est La'vie.

So all of this to talk about the credit game. What it is, how it started, and how it has morphed into something else entirely.

We have credit because we invented Money and then Banks. Without those two things you cannot have Credit.

The first credit was Business Credit. A business would want to buy something from somewhere else and would send a Letter of Credit to a local Banking Institution and the item bought would then be sent.

And over time this morphed into credit for Kings and Nobles and eventually to Corporations. And, after a while, Kings and Nobles stopped being able to borrow like they used to so the Tax System, and what was Taxed, morphed as well. And that is a different blog post.

Eventually the idea of Personal Credit for "normal" folk arrived. Meaning it was not necessarily for a business idea or some such, credit to buy a house. Or an Item of some sort. Later on came Credit Cards and the use of credit and debt really exploded.

After the introduction of the Credit Card an interesting thing happened. What started off with really tight controls on the people who could qualify for these cards began to loosen up. And they kept loosening up. And kept loosening up. At the same time it kept getting easier and easier to finance vehicles, and washing machines, and we all remember the housing bubble of 2008. It got really ridiculous how easy things got.

Because the Financial Oligarchs had realized something. As they got more and more people into debt they were so much easier to control. People who are struggling to keep their heads above water are not likely to go marching in the streets demanding better working conditions, pay, etc. They are going to keep their heads down and do what they feel they must in order to keep going.

Because debt was no longer shameful. Debt was made into proof that one was a worthy person. It was no longer the person who lived within their means, who saved and sacrificed in order to create a better future, who were celebrated. It was the Instant Gratification of those who kept up with the Jones while drowning.

Interesting side note, a friend of mine went thru Bankruptcy about ten years ago. One week after everything was finalized they received credit card offers, offers of credit rebuilding courses, for free, that started with we give you a credit card and show you how to use it to be able to increase your limit, and such. And other things as well. I do not remember them all. And it was amazing how quickly this happened in order to them back into debt.

Because, to the Financial Oligarchs, credit is a game. They use Credit to never own anything so they pay a lot less in taxes. And keep you and I in debt so that we can keep funding their credit and overseas bank accounts.

It is a Rigged Game that is solely designed to keep the Working Class and Middle Management people Permanently in Debt so that we can be controlled.

And the Oligarchs are laughing all the way to the bank at us, the poor saps who bought the lie that Credit is the Goal.

I first saw this from October of 2014 to October of 2015. I had just finished a year long Tech Course for which I had done exactly what I was told I should do. I financed that year of school. At the end of the course in October of 2014 I owed $27,000.00 and change in school loans. One year later, in October of 2015, after making a years worth of payments, I owed $31,000.00 and something.

I have not made a payment on those school loans since. I pretty much have resigned from the credit game as best I can. I have no credit cards and if it were not an emergency I would never have financed that car.

Because why should I playa game that is designed to MAKE SURE that I always lose?

Why should you?

Peace out Brothers and Sisters ✌