This piece is the result of a perfect confluence of a couple of scattered news articles that flitted across my news feed over the last week and a 12:30 am TV commercial.
First, the commercial: two friends hanging out when one gets a text, YOUR CREDIT SCORE HAS CHANGED! “Whoa,” the other friend exclaims, ‘why’d you get that?” “I get instant updates on all my credit reports,” replies the other, “don’t you know credit scores can change anytime?”
No, the friend didn’t know that, but he’s filled in now, credit scores can change any time, who wouldn’t want to be on top of it? It’s implied, not very subtly, that it’s the height of irresponsibility not to track one’s credit score 24/7. Luckily, XYZ company is there for you and, get this, it’s free to start!
The news items were about China – they are expanding their efforts to bring their brand of capitalism to the world and they have begun to institute a system of ‘social credit’ scores for their citizens, a program that has just started but is slated for a nationwide roll-out in 2020.
‘Social credit.’ I first became aware of the concept like a lot of people did, through the Netflix and BBC show, Black Mirror. The first episode of the third season, Nose Dive, was about a not so distant future where every one of our social interactions, from buying a coffee at Starbucks, to standing in line in an airport, to who you interact with in the office, are rated on a 1 to 5 scale. Your place in society is determined by your average score, the higher the average the better the car you can lease, community you can live in, job you can apply for.
It’s scary in that ‘it can easily happen’ sort of way that China seems ready to turn into reality. The whole, ‘let’s grade everyone on everything they do’ motif feeds into a ‘let me see what I’m rated today’ that can quite easily become an obsession that just gets in the way of, well, life.
But, that’s not why I’m writing about this today. What all this did was remind me, vividly, of a constant theme of this blog and my book, the effect shame and embarrassment have on potential clients. We have long been conditioned to consider a dropping credit rating, an unpaid bill, a certified letter or 1-800 call, a law suit, a foreclosure, anything about money that negatively reflects on us, mortifying.
And, indeed, there is a public shaming element to ‘social credit’, it’s implicit. But, we’re not there yet and hopefully never will be. In the meantime, despite this, I am constantly explaining to new clients that what they are going through has, indeed, happened to other people, often. That it’s not a matter of being embarrassed or shamed, it’s a matter of just taking care of the issue in the best possible way and moving on with one’s life.
No one who matters is judging you, credit scores can be repaired, the banks, lawyers, court clerks, judges, and collection companies are all on to the next case, there are no institutional memories.
Embarrassment and shame and a dozen other emotions serve only one purpose – they inhibit people from seeking help at the time professional help is most effective. This goes for foreclosure defense as well as family law issues and dealing with the IRS and a host of other matters.
Good lawyers have seen everything in their area of practice, they deal with everything, they will not judge. Most of all, they won’t be rating you on or off social media.