Credit where credit is rated

I am gainfully employed. I earn a living and help support my family. In the last 15 years I have never been out of work longer than 3 months. I have never personally faced the gut-wrenching unemployment that 25 million Americans face.

So this development caught me by surprise. People are being turned down for jobs they are qualified for due to their credit ratings.

It works like this. A person loses their job. Bill pile up, payments become late, and credit ratings are hurt. Meanwhile the person keeps looking for a job, and finally gets a good interview - not just a starter interview but one with a person who can make a decision. The person is qualified, and would be a good fit for the company. Then the company runs their credit score, finds out that the person has poor credit, and therefore cannot be trusted to get the job. Which in turn hurts that person's credit rating further.

It seems to me that the whole concept of credit ratings has been twisted into something cruel. I concede the need for credit ratings - after all, there really are people who cannot pay the bills they try to acquire - but credit ratings are being exploited and used for things that have nothing to do with one's credit-worthiness. I mean, using it as a standard as to whether or not you should employ someone?

And to be honest, do credit card companies actually give a damn about credit scores? They constantly offer credit cards to people without good credit scores, and with interest rates that virtually assure that their credit scores cannot improve. Yes, having a credit card with a high interest rate will send your credit score down - it's one reason I don't have a credit card.

I think the whole credit system needs a re-boot. I don’t know how; that's something for people smarter than I am to work out. But I do recognize that the system we have now is broken, and is certainly going to get worse. You could argue effectively that it already has.

Cheap shots:

I have refused to fly Delta for a long time because their service is crap, but this is so fucked up that you should boycott them too.

As fucked up as the whole Weiner situation is, if he did it on private time and without using government funds then I don't give a shit. Same with David Vitter. I'll still ridicule them both as both did lie about it and Vitter in fact tried to pass himself off as a paragon of virtue, but neither one is a John Edwards, after all. But this is a problem.

On a side note (and there won't be a link) surfing through the internet without seeing Weiner's supposed Wang is proving to be difficult. Damn you information age!

But, it gets better!

At this point the only real surprise about this piece of terrible news is how unsurprising this is. And that it ranks this low in the cheap shots.

Can we have Julie Brown write a response song to her 1980's hit "I like them big and stupid"?

Ezra Klein vs. the health care industrial complex.

And he bitched about his predecessor's travel.

Or maybe it's Dick Cheney's soul sucking it all away.

Today's WTF moment provided by the North Carolina Republicants.

Short story theater.

Face it people, these fuckers  just don't want you working.

I watched this happen live(ish) and my first reaction to it all was dude, are you all right?

Awesome.

As always, Jesus' General delivers the goods.

Richard Dreyfus gives a dramatic reading you must hear.

I will be mayor Liz Lemmon, I will.

I have a theory that Dennis Miller lost someone he knew on 9/11 - someone he hasn't talked about publicly. To me it's the only thing that can explain how he went from liberal satirist to conservative douchebag so quickly. I think the same might be true of the man who was supposed to be the next Vice President. What a douchebag he's become.

On the flipside, apparently you need to be in a mid-life crisis to be a Republican.

Super Cool Biz.

I am so looking forward to June 20th.

And because I love you, Tommy Shaw and Kevin Cronin, being all classic rock and shit.