America’s financial health should be a national concern and addressing this concern starts with our credit scores.
The difference between a 500 credit score and a 700 credit score is not just about the interest rate on a car loan—it’s about the quality of your life. Credit scores can determine economic stability, influence longevity, and affect the safety of our neighborhoods, the strength of our communities, and even the resilience of our democracy.
A 700-credit-score America is a more hopeful, more united, and more prosperous America. I believe that raising credit scores by 100 points, neighborhood by neighborhood, community by community, could stabilize the nation.
But right now, too many communities—urban and rural, Black and white—are trapped in a 500-credit-score reality. Financial stress in these communities fuels division, hopelessness, and too often, unrest.
When people feel left out, locked out, and economically abandoned, they express their frustration in different ways. Throughout our history, various communities have rioted in the streets and at the ballot box. Both are expressions of the same frustration and pain—a feeling that the system isn’t working for them.
But let’s be clear: rioting—whether in the streets or at the ballot box—doesn’t solve the problem. Rioting doesn’t put food on the table, fund a child’s education, or build wealth for the next generation. We have to solve our problems and learn to live together. That solution starts with financial literacy and economic empowerment.
In a 500-credit-score community, whether in urban Atlanta or rural Appalachia, the financial landscape is bleak. A check-cashing store sits next to a payday lender, which is next to a rent-to-own store, which is next to a title loan lending office, which is next to a pawn shop, which is next to a liquor store. Down the street, there’s a church trying to provide some emotional relief once a week. This is poverty economics—a system that profits off of financial struggle. The poorer you are, the more things cost relative to your wealth. Poor Americans pay higher interest rates, higher fees, higher rent. The cost of being poor is expensive.
Now, contrast this picture with a 700-credit-score community. Instead of payday lenders, there are banks. Instead of predatory rent-to-own contracts, there is homeownership. Instead of there only being processed fast food choices, there are fresh, whole food options. Instead of economic despair, there is business ownership and investment. Instead of cashing checks, people are writing them. Instead of resentment, there is optimism.
These two pictures are so different because higher credit scores don’t just benefit individuals—they stabilize entire communities. According to Operation HOPE’s 700 Credit Score Index, communities with higher credit scores experience lower crime rates because financial desperation decreases. Political division lessens as people feel empowered rather than disenfranchised. Health outcomes improve because financial stress is a major driver of poor mental and physical health. Lifespans even increase. In fact, people in stable, economically secure communities live up to 20 years longer. And as more people with access to credit spend, invest, and build businesses, GDP grows and the broader economy thrives.
For too long, we’ve been fighting, struggling, and arguing over the wrong things. The real color that matters today isn’t Black or white, or red or blue—it’s green.
Economic power is what truly binds us together. A poor white family in West Virginia and a poor Black family in Detroit may have more in common than they realize. Both are navigating a broken financial system, dealing with a lack of economic opportunity, and struggling to escape the 500-credit-score economy.
Instead of uniting to fix the system, we’ve allowed the politics of division to turn us against each other. Meanwhile, some of the biggest financial companies keep winning—because while we’re distracted, they keep making money off our financial instability.
But an economically literate America is a stronger America. And we can build a better country through financial literacy, homeownership, entrepreneurship, and access to credit.
So, how can we help Americans raise their credit scores to the 700 range? First, we must make financial literacy a national priority. My Inclusive Economics plan is about making sure financial literacy is taught in every K-12 school in America. Every child should graduate knowing how credit works, how to budget, and how to build wealth.
Second, we must increase banking access and invest in credit-building programs. Banking deserts should be replaced with real banking solutions that help communities rather than exploit them. FDIC-insured banks must be incentivized to raise credit scores in the communities they serve by tying this activity directly to their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) credit from federal regulators.
To be sure, corporate America has a major role to play. Companies should offer credit-building benefits to employees just like they offer health insurance. They should do this not only because it is good for the communities they operate in but also because a financially secure workforce is a more productive and more stable workforce. State and federal level government policy can also support wealth-building. Policies like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and the CRA should focus on option-building and credit-building initiatives in underserved areas.
A financially stable America is a stronger, safer, and more unified America. It’s an America where people own their futures, rather than renting them. It’s a place where communities thrive instead of just survive.
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