Welcome to Nowhere

It’s now a growing trend in the US, at least, to run a credit check on potential employees. I could go into my opinion on it, but I’ll just say it’s about goddamn time. There’s a lot of argument against it, but… truth be told, chances are if you haven’t gone into debt for something in your entire life, then you’re probably well enough off that this doesn’t even become an issue. Of course, I don’t know that more employers are doing so in Canada, so that’s probably moot from a me standpoint, but… still. It’s that whole responsibility thing. You may be a decent enough financial planner to avoid *needing* to go into debt for things you want and/or need to buy. On the other hand, you may be like certain relatives of mine–too stupid and/or stubborn to go into debt for things you need, choosing instead to rely on a barely functioning vehicle, for instance, until it craps out completely leaving you somewhere between home and the grocery store. Fact of the matter, though, is *most* people are going to need to start collecting debt, and the such, if they expect to get anywhere financially, so employers looking at credit reports/histories and things are actually a *good* thing. It’s that whole responsibility thing–if you’ve had a debt of $3000 for the last year and a half and have only paid $50 of it off, what the hell have you been doing with the rest of your money during the year? This is, IMO, most important if you’re planning to work in the financial industry… but it’s a good indicator for a few other jobs, too. If you can’t handle your own affairs, why should a company, or a customer, trust you to handle theirs? If I were an employer, I’d certainly much rather have someone working for me that didn’t default on every second lone/creditcard payment. But then, I could be just being a stuck-up asshole, too. Oh well.