Mastercard also notified me that my credit limit has increased. It's weird putting effort into gaining reputation within the legacy system, but it still has a lot to offer. Being able to leverage our own identity into a loan is pretty powerful stuff if we're actually responsible with what we do with it.
For all the shit I talk about the legacy system and how this is all "debt slavery"... it's really not that bad. I exaggerate a lot. Everything is relative. You know what would have really sucked? Getting publicly crucified 2000 years ago while dying a slow an agonizing death, hoping that a soldier would pop by to stab you in the lungs for the mercy kill.
The history of humanity and society in general is just one series of fully metal events after another. You know those aliens are up there thinking, "Damn! These monkeys are savage as hell." Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the mothership to come pick me up.
What happened when I didn't pay back that $10k in credit card debt 5 years ago? Did they throw me into the gulag? Did they take away my freedom? Did I get inconvenienced one single bit?
It just so happens that I didn't need a good credit score for anything during that time. I did have to pass a background check one single time in order to lease an apartment for a year. Know what I did to "prove I had the money to pay rent"? I didn't have a job, so I just went into the office with a $2000 bankroll and said I was a professional poker player.
They were actually pretty impressed. Probably because no one sees cash anymore. Luckily they didn't decide I was a drug dealer (or maybe they did and decided that I definitely would pay rent). For anyone that needs to hear this: never say you're a professional poker player at a job interview. That worked for me about zero out of five times, even though it was the truth. It never works.
So yeah even though I was a professional poker player in Portland, I never found a good cardroom in Sacramento. There are several, but damn the rake is just too much. The cardrooms in Portland are amazing because of the gambling laws. Zero rake, $10 per day cover charge only, all the dealers are "volunteers" who work for tips (paid $0 an hour). So yeah you're somewhat expected to tip heavy but the fact that there's no rake means you can make bank if you grind out a ten hour day. The players there weren't even good. Plenty of degenerate gamblers.
I basically paid my rent for a year with credit cards and a dwindling savings account. By the time the year was up I was completely out of money and ended up moving in with my girlfriend, crippled by debt and no job. In fact the only reason I got the job at Amazon was because the warehouse was right next to her work and there was a "we're hiring" sign and being broke A-F was a huge strain on our relationship. Fun times.
Oh yeah, so I borrowed $10k and just didn't pay it back... AND there was no punishment for doing so. Hilarious. Now my credit score is going back up. I have a credit card. My limit on my secured card has increased from $200 to $1000. My score is now high enough to leverage it into another credit card with a higher limit and a better interest rate. I've officially legally stolen $10k with no punishment (or at least the punishment had zero affect). Crazy stuff. Maybe I should do it again? lol jk I would never (unless shit really hit the fan just like it did back then).
The crazy thing about crypto is that the legacy economy can't track it, and even if they can track it, they can't force us to give them the money or freeze our assets. This is going to come into play once crypto goes mainstream. The stories will be a thing of legend; mark my words.
Time keeps tick tick ticking away. Back when I realized that I'd never pay back that $10k in credit debt, it was hard to ever imagine that my credit score would ever recover. Here we are, almost right back where I started. It won't be long now before I make it back up to 700+ points. Maybe one day I'll do a post on all the ways we can game the system to increase this ridiculous number. Most people don't even try.
