If the court system worked at all, you could just pull court records checking for judgments saying the applicant defaulted on a loan.

That won't work because courts are too expensive, and also because it's less profitable than extortion via debt collection.

Also, it would prevent the banks from creating protection rackets (no house for you unless you have and use credit cards!), or being "accidentally" racist/classist/etc (oops! The algorithm says your type need not apply. Our hands are tied.)

Especially when the only reason that credit line was taken out was because they leaked your SSN and DOB during a period when their CISO was a music major.

But the FCRA protects these liars from consequences, so here we are.

Cold ideological dismissals like this that ignore what is actually happening to people are making me increasingly bitter. It's almost like you're saying "Let them eat cake."

No sense in getting offended at the idea someone is saying you’re dishonest.

It is offensive when "unforeseen circumstances" is casted as "dishonesty." This kind of thing is routinely done to criminalize the poor.

It would go a long way.

Can we at least make the government take a financially literacy class first? It is the biggest debtor in the world.

Having debt isn't the problem. Defaulting on it is, and the government doesn't do that.

If an individual goes broke wracking up medical debt, "Too bad. You should have been more economically useful." If the government goes broke, "Uh, it's no problem."

I get it. They were trained to despise individuals and worship institutions. They stop singing this song when they get edged out of the system though. I've met many middle aged programmers that gave up all hope in life because they lost their economic value.

Hope you people aren't one of them.