Doesn't credit score also incorporate depth of payment (not sure if that's the term, but a history of paying back a large debt)? A financial adviser once told me, when I was three years out of university and had finished paying off my student loans, that my credit score was good (I'd paid off minimal bills ontime on credit cards for years and paid off a used car and student loans) but not deep - I'd never taken on a mortgage or any other high five-digit or six-digit debts.

So, though I'd been responsible for a long time, it didn't count like it would have if I'd engaged in a lot more borrowing. Problem was, I valued being debt-free sooner for the flexibility it gave me.

After all, look at the etymology of mortgage - mort gage (old French), literally "death pledge". Thanks, but I prefer life without that kind of constraint.

And if one is born into generational poverty, in a place highly dependent on government intervention, its probably really hard to access the mindset and opportunities for education and entrepreneurial examples that could start to break the poverty trend.