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Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

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Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#111

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

A credit score is different from simply a registry. A registry is just a record.

A score is opaque based on proprietary models, and scores can still be derived by private companies.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#112
post #42
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a numbers game (no puns intended). Let's say we have 100k people that live in a few poor counties where not everyone has government ID and they can't afford to spend time / money to go very far. Now, if 40k of those people need an ID to vote, reducing the hours that the nearest DMV operates will reduce the number of people that get an ID. Now, you might say, "but why can't they just go to the DMV in the next co…

What are better suggestions to prevent voter fraud? We know from history that voting fraud is a thing, in the 1800s it was known that political parties would pay fresh immigrants to vote (like the scene in Upton Sinclaire's "The Jungle"), or to even kidnap people and force them into voting [1]. So we can't rely on good faith. I'm under the impression that to vote you must register in a voting district, surely that re…

My state lets me get a state ID even if I don't have a driver's license. The ID has my current address on it and my face too. I think that's plenty of proof.

Also, the DMV offices, where I can get my state ID has plenty of locations and they're open often enough and long enough every day that it doesn't prevent people from getting their ID.

Between those two, I think we're doing a pretty good job of keeping enough people honest that voter suppression or voting fraud aren't big enough issues here.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#113

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

> Republicans play to suppress minority voters. What are they doing to suppress minorities?

The minorities argument is hogwash. Read the list of things you can't do without a government ID and ask yourself how many are not doing any of those: have a bank account, getting a cellphone, buy alcohol or cigarettes, apply for food stamps or welfare or medicaid/social security, apply for unemployment or a job, rent/buy a house, drive/buy/rent a car, fly, get married, etc etc

So what is the real story?

Former NYC Democratic Commissioner of the Board of Elections Alan Schulkin explaining how prevalent voter fraud is in New York City and the need for Voter ID laws: https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/117511800314022297...

A series on how common voter fraud is: https://www.projectveritas.com/2018/11/13/elections-fraud-20...

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#114

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

> Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores?

Or the Obama-era IRS supposedly targeting conservative groups. [1]

Without going down the rabbit's hole of which claims were true and by how much....it's certainly the sort of thing you would rather remove as far as possible from politics.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#115

Having known lots of people in the lending industry not a single one of them believes that the current credit rating system (with many I’ve talked to pointing out FICO in particularly) had any real net positive impact on the average person not so they seem to believe that banks or other lending institutions have derived any other even fit than a loophole for setting interest rates high for as many people as possible.…

a loophole for setting interest rates high for as many people as possible.

This makes no sense. Banks can set whatever interest rate they want. It's in their best interest to give trustworthy people as low as interest rate as they can.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#116
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically they're not trying to suppress minority voters?

It is a numbers game (no puns intended). Let's say we have 100k people that live in a few poor counties where not everyone has government ID and they can't afford to spend time / money to go very far. Now, if 40k of those people need an ID to vote, reducing the hours that the nearest DMV operates will reduce the number of people that get an ID. Now, you might say, "but why can't they just go to the DMV in the next co…

I heard this fraud implemented in Texas forces low income people without vehicles to travel 400+ miles by bus to the nearest DMV to get the correct replacement voting documentation (many seniors/disabled).

When conservatives (racists) attack voters using economics (in this case a voter tax), they know precisely which non-white voters they are targeting.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#117

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

> Republicans play to suppress minority voters. What are they doing to suppress minorities?

Voter ID laws to start. It’s a modern day poll tax to require ID to vote which prevents a crime barely anyone is even committing that doesn’t scale easily to sway most elections.

I haven’t seen Republicans calling for easy access to IDs though and their efforts to suppress voting from people who side with the left are notorious.

Their gerrymandered maps are being struck down in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and N. Carolina.

They conveniently close polling locations in minority neighborhoods.

They oppose election security bills. (McConnell until recently).

They oppose informing the public about election interference (McConnell).

Their PACs refuse to disclose donor information.

They’re pro dark money in elections.

Trump just tried to pressure the Ukranian leader for dirt on Biden.

The electoral college heavily favors Republicans and has given them at two Presidents in the last twenty years alone who lost the popular vote.

When Democrats are elected they’ll obstruct their Supreme Court nominations until they can put in their own.

The Senate heavily favors rural populations with the Dakota’s receiving four Senators with a population just over one million while California gets two with just under forty million people.

McConnell won’t even bring bills passed by the House to the floor of the Senate and has referred to himself as the Grim Reaper.

Republicans do not support making election days national holidays.

Republicans consistently try to scale back poll hours and early access voting.

Republicans are anti-democracy and a grave danger to our free nation at this point and it’s terrifying. They use every trick in the book to undermine the populace’s ability to elect leaders that do not serve the rich and the rich only. They stand for absolutely nothing except tax cuts, profits, unbridled corruption, and the selling off of America’s resources wholesale to the highest bidder.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#118

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

If the algorithm is and remains transparent and open to revision I don't see the harm.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They want to require people to show government-issued photo IDs when voting to prove they have the right to vote.

I'm a progressive liberal, but I believe this is hogwash. Many countries have a government issued national card for citizens. It's not a huge deal. Activists have made it seem like it's a way to suppress voters but I think that's largely BS. We could start a campaign now, or just after the next election in 2020, and get people to sign up for cards by 2028, and enforce that then. We have census every 10 years, it's so…

Sure, if you had a free and convenient citizen ID card, requiring ID to vote might be just fine.

As it is currently, it's absolutely a way to suppress the vote of low-income (and minority) people. In many areas of many states getting photo ID is non-trivial, especially if you're in a shitty job.

Re: Sanders wants to replace credit reporting companies with public credit registry

#120
post #12

Awful idea. Having the government giving you a rating, even just for loans is way too far. Politics shouldn't impact my ability to pay but it certainly will. Look at the games Republicans play to suppress minority voters. You want to give those same people power over your credit scores? This is just trying to solve a symptom with a deeper problem. The real problem is that our judicial system is absolutely cowardly to…

But would just the 3 US credit report companies would go bankrupt if the judicial system was doing its job ? I agree that the government should not rate credit worthiness. But we need a trusted third party that tracks your credit history (just the data of what/when you got credits, and missed payments). Something that the banks and loan shop could consult and compute their own risk assessment. In some European countr…

There’s no reason the the government would be any better at keeping data safe, but at least it would reduce the points of failure from 3 to 1... and I guess the government already knows your SSN!
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