There is so much wrong with this

Both with the story itself and the resulting bloggentary.

The story: credit card companies are looking at jacking up rates on those who pay on time and have good credit.

The blog is Crooks and Liars – Susie Madrak, specifically, who writes:

Including Legislators have a right to control your out-of-control industry because credit has become something akin to a necessary public utility…

Susie, President Obama, and Hugo Chavez should get together. They’d have a lot to talk about.

Normally, I somewhat uncomfortably defend credit card companies from liberal/Democrat/populist complaining against them. Uncomfortably, because I know they do prey on the young, the stupid, the greedy. They purposely target certain people who are more likely to rack up huge bills and penalties.

But defend, because: hey, you signed a contract.

Now, I say to the credit card industry: hey, you signed a contract.

People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.

To paraphrase Ann Althouse’s take: screw you. Do that to me, and I’ll do business somewhere else. Or I’ll jsut use a debit card and keep a limited amount of funds in that account.

Back to Susie now, who wrote:

…especially when people can’t even get a job due to a poor credit rating.

I’m willing to accept ignorance on my part, here: what kinds of jobs require a good credit rating? Outside of something that requires a security clearance?

Other than in the Army (I had a relatively low security clearance), I’ve never even been asked about my credit rating in that context.