So the next thing you know I'm 25 and I get a Guitar Center Credit Card from HSBC being told it will build a credit rating. I have a joint credit card with mom - yet anything involving "credit building" I had to either get co-signed or forego because I did not have "any credit rating" at all. Even WITH the Guitar Center credit card (fucking liars). So how the hell is it I can't even finance a $250 Squier despite the fact I've been renting for - at that point - 5 years, because I "don't have any credit" - despite the fact that since 18 I had an emergency joint card with my mom. What the hell is wrong with this Experien and Equifax bullshit - seems more like they exist to shove a ginormous plug up our collective asses - which seems to be the going thing about The posterchildren of everything wrong with our species/world. I guess once nice thing about suits and ties, it makes finding the targets of our aggression really easy to point a finger at.

I personally, very very deeply HATE owning anyone money. I was raised on the princple (somewhat hypocritically) that "neither a borrower nor lender be". So I have always actively tried to avoid it by owning everything I own outright 100%. Yes, it's one more reason I drive a 1/2 million mile old 30 year old SUV - because I can, and I don't owe jack-shit on that vehicle except the jackboot politician "living taxes" this country loves so much, yet our forefathers dumped boxes of tea into the Atlantic over. All my guitars I paid cash or did a trade-up for, if I did not build it entirely myself. All my vintage computers were me operating like the stock exchange ideally does - buy low, sell high. THAT is how I live my life financially, always have, always will. It's the big reason why things like renting an apartment or even considering buying a house are such a tremendous deal for me - if I'm going into a lease where I'm going to get fucked around by a lying PM for 3-7 years, or a 30 year FRM (Fixed Rate Mortgage) at any level of APR, with or without PMI - then I'm going to do it RIGHT. If I'm buying a car, I'm more apt to

Honestly, it's bloody stupid that we have a credit system that nobody understands except the people that control it, and then it's obscured by a bunch of posterchildren in the finance industry who will drop your "score" one point because someone wanted to see what it was before considering lending you anything. The whole premise is stupid.

And if we want to think outside the box even furthermore, if lending is intended only as a "once in awhile" thing, then why do we have ANYTHING that is REQUIRED for life on this planet that is so prohibitively expensive you need a credit check so hard you might as well submit to the ATF to buy a class-3 fully automatic "assault" weapon? Why does buying a new car have to feel like purchasing a fully automatic 9mm Uzi machine gun?

And how are we supposed to improve anything about our FICO, Experian, or Equifax scores if we can't understand or find a clear explaination of how the whole system actually works. Not a PART of the system - ALL OF IT! Like I'm someone learning to rebuild a gasoline engine! "But it'll be too hard for you - you'll have to learn some difficult math" - well maybe if they explained this as the reason to learn calculus in high school on an advanced level, maybe I would have been willing to apply myself more, rather than "it's required for college" you dummies. Seriously, I'm so tired of these finance blockheads acting so sanctimonious as to think that I'm "unwilling" to learn something relevant to my life. Maybe you should stop assuming everyone's like the mentally handicapped homeless you spit on before work!

Seriously though, if any "system" is trying to obscure a part of itself, for any purpose, it is OUR job, we the people, in the USA, to QUESTION the aforementioned "system" and determine maybe NOT TO USE IT? That way we can find better solutions to these issues, or force them to be transparent. Whatever happened to the golden rule dammit? So I'm supposed to take "hits" to my credit score to rent or buy anything substantial and needed for life, but I need a high enough credit score to get them. Seriously, fuck the credit system in this country. I'm beginning to think some of hte homeless people have a real point when it comes to avoiding it.