Which way is up?

The latest financial news is that American FICO scores (your personal credit rating) are careening downwards.  Current statistics show that 25 % of Americans have a FICO score below 599!  That's about 33.4 million people.  The correlation between these figures and 26 million unemployed cannot be denied.  What will happen to the people who cannot get home loans, car loans, personal consumer loans, or small business loans?  What impact will this have on the communities they live in?  No man is an island and we need to be concerned because the health of our economy depends on the individual consumer.  Prior to the financial meltdown, lenders were too lenient in their credit requirements.  Now it seems, things have swung too far the other way.  Should an individual who defaulted on a mortgage due to job loss  be evaluated on the same scale as someone who made a strategic decision to allow foreclosure?  We've seen many investors do just that very thing.  We think new guidelines need to be in place to allow consumers to be judged individually and our economic policies to swing back to a middle ground.