"You're welcome to not participate in the credit system,"
Allow me to posit that this isn't true, and give an example of my reasoning. I will lead this by saying one thing to keep in mind is that debt is inversely proportional to freedom in my mind.
The credit system has encouraged debt in society as a whole, which definitely can't be avoided just by removing your particular self from the system. For a more concrete example of this, straight from the video I linked: before 2008 property wasn't worth anything, so they encouraged everyone to over-leverage, buy more property with the money you borrow, then buy more and more property, until everyone was completely over-leveraged and there wasn't any money left.
The 08 crash was quantifiably tied to the fucked up nature of the credit system.
Not only that, but you are speaking about abusing the system by moving away, but what I consider it an abuse of the people to encourage people into debt and away from fiscally sound policy. You could be wealthy, pay things in cash, and owe no one anything, but ask for a loan and get told no, because you are exactly the kind of customer the credit agencies (and banks) don't want.
What the banks want is people with crappy credit scores so they can charge usurious interests rates and encumber and fiscally rape people the rest of their lives. That's not a system that is just about being "welcome to not participate in", it's a system that fucks up our society for the worse and it's effects are unavoidable even if you do remove yourself from it.
On the matter of mortages and cars, etc, I would say the over-avilability of credit has inflated prices in a way that makes this a self-fulfilling prophecy. If prices were closer to actual costs, it would be much more doable.
Allow me to posit that this isn't true, and give an example of my reasoning. I will lead this by saying one thing to keep in mind is that debt is inversely proportional to freedom in my mind.
The credit system has encouraged debt in society as a whole, which definitely can't be avoided just by removing your particular self from the system. For a more concrete example of this, straight from the video I linked: before 2008 property wasn't worth anything, so they encouraged everyone to over-leverage, buy more property with the money you borrow, then buy more and more property, until everyone was completely over-leveraged and there wasn't any money left.
The 08 crash was quantifiably tied to the fucked up nature of the credit system.
Not only that, but you are speaking about abusing the system by moving away, but what I consider it an abuse of the people to encourage people into debt and away from fiscally sound policy. You could be wealthy, pay things in cash, and owe no one anything, but ask for a loan and get told no, because you are exactly the kind of customer the credit agencies (and banks) don't want.
What the banks want is people with crappy credit scores so they can charge usurious interests rates and encumber and fiscally rape people the rest of their lives. That's not a system that is just about being "welcome to not participate in", it's a system that fucks up our society for the worse and it's effects are unavoidable even if you do remove yourself from it.
On the matter of mortages and cars, etc, I would say the over-avilability of credit has inflated prices in a way that makes this a self-fulfilling prophecy. If prices were closer to actual costs, it would be much more doable.