How Equifax Became a Private IRS
mattstoller.substack.com
How Equifax Became a Private IRS
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Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#2A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass.
Full disclosure: I am a communist, and recognize most Marxist state social credit systems tend to have the same effect. Transparency in the plenary party sessions seems to do little to reform this cudgel but the parallels in capitalisms version are neat to me.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#3A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
I would argue it's not completely unspoken. But it's not spoken loudly enough. Pass it on.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#4A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#5A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.
I agree with you on the current state, but I think parent may be concerned about future state where unelected, private entity determines your societal worth based on yet unknown rules; or known, but less bound by 'loan paid off' type of information. Right now, it appears to be mostly limited to various financial events, but current state is not guaranteed not to change in the future.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.
I agree with you on the current state, but I think parent may be concerned about future state where unelected, private entity determines your societal worth based on yet unknown rules; or known, but less bound by 'loan paid off' type of information. Right now, it appears to be mostly limited to various financial events, but current state is not guaranteed not to change in the future.
> future state
GP's comment was written in present tense.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#7A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.
Those are not the only rules though... you can have low credit for not taking out enough loans and not having debt. You get dinged for opening and closing credit card accounts too quickly, even if you've never missed a payment.
Your score goes down if you simply inquire about loans a bit too often...
All of these are "rules" made up unilaterally by the credit bureaus.
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#8A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
It seems weird not to name Experian. Aren't there only three?
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#9A cogent argument could.be made that transunion, Equifax, and other big private credit clearinghouses act as direct agents of an unspoken american "social credit" system in which the credit score denies housing and employment to those who refuse to or cannot conform to a largely invisible tome of rules. These agents are then unpoliced as they serve capitalisms direct need for an underclass. Full disclosure: I am a co…
It seems weird not to name Experian. Aren't there only three?
There's actually 4. Innovis
Re: How Equifax Became a Private IRS
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, the biggest rules are well known and quite simple: If you take a loan and pay it back on time, you'll have high credit. If you fail to meet your obligations, you won't. The existence of an underclass which is constantly on the edge of not being able to pay their bills is true though.
Those are not the only rules though... you can have low credit for not taking out enough loans and not having debt. You get dinged for opening and closing credit card accounts too quickly, even if you've never missed a payment. Your score goes down if you simply inquire about loans a bit too often... All of these are "rules" made up unilaterally by the credit bureaus.
I have a few credit cards that I no longer use. If I cancel them my score would go down because the average age/length credit history would go down.
Not by that much, but it is surprising that leaving these cards open is incentivized whereas the more secure and less risky thing to do would be to close those accounts.