Our Plain and Simple Life

I was asked about renting a car when we don't have any credit cards.

Over all of our years, wekd never needed to rent one until moving down here. Once, when Dewey and Chris first went back north to move the larger but misc. things we rented one so the children and I weren't left here alone and new and stranded we did rent one.
We also rented one 2 years ago when I needed to drive back north to gather some business papers and was not making it a family trip.
Neither time did we have an issue renting a car, and neither time did we have a credit card. They asked for one, we explained we didn't have anything like that and the Enterprise owner made other arrangements for us. It never occured to me that it would be an issue as it was worked out when qe needed it. Small-town Southern luck maybe, I don't know.

I guess one of my problems (aside from the whole debt issue) with credit in general is what would you do if you were not eligible for any? What if you had no alternative left but to be self sufficient?
What would countless Americans do, right now, if they had no choice but to 'fend' for themselves? No government help or aid of any kind?

Oh wait...many are finding that out now. They had all of their earnings, all of the resources, their day to day livelihood and even their future incomes tied up in the credit-worthiness and sustainability of others outside of themselves.

They lost a job because someone else was not stable.
They lost money they had already earned because someone else was not sustainable.
They lost their homes, their cars, so much...

They outsourced their future with too much confidence or maybe a lack of self-confidence.

My future is not based on my putting confidence into anyone flesh and bones or mortar and block. I am teaching my children that they had better know how to confidently supply for their own day to day needs and not sit back with a false sense of security from educational training, employment or potential government interceding. They had best have their own plan of action in place because when push comes to shove, it all comes down to just God and them alone.

People are failing right now because they wagered their current and future worth on the knowledge level and morals of others. They bought houses they knew they couldn't afford using future income they had no assurance of because they were told it was status. They lost jobs that were based on the financial backing of others. They lost investments savings and their entire futures that were given over willingly to others for 'safe keeping' until they needed them.

We lost some $11000 due to poor investment planning of others with Dewey's Union pension a few years back. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, that really isn't some huge amount to lose when talking investments. But it was to us mainly because it was someone else losing that money -- OUR hard earned money. We don't have that problem now.
My mother had several investments and accounts that over the past couple of years lost money for her, literally over half their worth. This is all she has to live on and it is just gone. She finally took what was left and turned it over into other things, but still...her future is intertwined with the financial base of others.

We are wanting out of debt for that reason alone. We don't want our future or our lifestyle to be based on others ability to survive or succeed. For us, having credit is the same thing. Today you have decent credit but what about tomorrow? A lot of people had great credit worthiness until this past year. Now they are shooting their employers, their families and themselves because it's all gone. No job, no investments, no home.

That credit score does not give me value unless I base myself on someone else's arbitrary point system.
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