CREDIT SCORES

Here in Texas, while many other states are limiting or eliminating this practice of setting insurance rates (all manner of insurance...auto, health,homeowners etc.) based on the applicants credit rating because it makes giant assumptions about said applicants that ultimately protect the insurance companies from loss. The very business that they are in. Insuring against loss. Some government whore here in Texas sent a recommendation to our gub'ner Donny Osmond, I mean pRick Perry saying he say no reason why Texas should discontinue this practice. This practice has been denounced as racist, hence the attention it has recieved in the media. Blacks and latinos are poorer, more likely to have "credit issues" and this is just unfair to those poor terminally repressed minorities.
I don't disagree with this notion on fact. minority groups are, by and large, still struggling with the notion of equality and equal opportunity in america. Sure, we don't lynch them anymore for looking at our women (well...it's a rare occurance) but that white hooded approach has been largely replaced by the soft bigotry (thanks Bill) of shifty shit like credit scoring, and loads of other barely under the radar ways of keeping people down.
You'll notice I said "people" in that last sentence...free of ethnic designation. I submit there is another trend developing in this country, actually it's been brewing for years. But in these days of "economic recovery" it doesn't matter what color you are anymore.And here in texas, we can thank credit scoring to a large degree.
Let me recap our own story to underline the point.
Once upon a time, Ann was a high paid IT manager and I was a well paid manager. Ann got laid off and after awhile her unemployment benefits expired and she still couldn't find a job even close to the one she had. No matter, I still had a good job, and although we were struggling, we kept up our bills (read: credit score) well enough to qualify for a home equity loan at a decent locked in interest rate. Time passed, still no job for Ann.Then, finally the luck of our "recovering economy" and a friend connection landed Ann a job, albiet at less than half what she had made doing the IT thing. At this point we had fallen behind in our (what I like to call) "extraneous debt". We had been reduced to paying the essentials and blowing off other stuff thanks to laws that afford protection from collection in Texas (now that's ironic, innit?). But now Ann was employed and we could begin digging out and "repair our credit". But, alas, I lost my job to circumstances that can only be explained as wrong...I am still praying for a pox on his family to this day...a really nasty fucking pox. I essentially paid for the "sins of the father", but enough about that. I, by virtue of a friend landed on my feet and got a job that paid 2/3rds of my former salary (without the benefit of lolling on the dole for awhile...damn it!:) ) . So we adjusted again, and fell further behind. Then, Ann got laid off again, as a result of the "recovering economy" and gross mismanagement of the part of her employer. Sure, people didn't have the extra cash to spend on training their dogs, but you don't fuck around the one's that do, intentionally or not.
There were other elements at play in this situation, eerily reminiscent of that other shit company we worked for, but in this case it was, in my opinion, misguided trust and not addiction/bipolar disorder, but I said I wasn't going there, so I won't.
At any rate, the end result is our current credit score sucks and that means our car insurance rates could triple...our home owners insurance could triple. All because of the "recovering economy". The playing field is being levelled...in the opposite direction.
Let me just say for the record, that while I spent a fair amount of time and energy feeling sorry for us and our situation, I'm not feeling sorry anymore. I'm angry...and focused.And responding as opposed to reacting. These credit scores are just a scratch of the surface. The middle class is closer to being a memory than ever before. Bushco has a choke hold on us and the world, one that will surely backfire. And the lower/middle class are paying the price. Again. And this time color isn't the only issue. It's all of us, and for the focus to be on minorities in the case of credit scores...that they be trotted out on display as victims is fucking wrong. We're all victims here.
What can I say...it's Monday :P.