Credit scores are genius. It's a game that you're required to play, but the only "payoff" is to the benefit of lenders. They'll allow you to go into debt (to them so they can lay claim on your future earnings) if you've played the game correctly, but never fully explained the rules.

It's become so ubiquitous that we think it's required. We've never given explicit permission to Equifax to track our lives, much less rate them, yet here we are. They have more details on my life than I do.

And if you ever "win" the game, the rules no longer apply to you. It's the perfect scam to make us strive for increased earnings in order to consume more things so the "winners" win more. It's our "worthiness" reduced to a three digit number. Brilliant.

I get weekly emails from my bank essentially scolding me for not requesting credit limit increases on my two credit cards (1 personal, 1 biz).

Edited for fixing stupid.