251–260 of 347 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and then people claim the social credit scoring system in china is a dystopian hellscape. I happen to think it’s far less dystopian that privately run financial credit reporting agencies.
I think social credit scoring is another level closer to hell.
The fact that we haven't nationalized credit reporting absolutely baffles me. These companies have so much power over our lives, are completely unaccountable, and are so incredibly incompetent.
The whole credit rating system as it is in the US seems complete ass-backwards to me. It basically encourages people to go into debt to build a history of paying it back in time. Here in the Netherlands it works exactly the opposite: the best 'rating' is to not be in the system at all. When you get a loan, the amount and monthly payments are registered. This registration is removed once you have paid back the loan. W…
How do you propose a third party can establish your ability AND desire to pay back a loan, i.e., determine how much risk there is in lending to you?
> As such there is no such thing as a good or bad rating, only what you can and cannot afford.
This is a completely naive line of thinking. Maybe you CAN afford a loan, but WILL you pay it back? Ah, you might say, the bank will remember that and refuse to loan you money next time. Congratulations, you've invented a system of credit worthiness.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say this problem would also be solved if we stopped pretending that a Social Security number was a serious substitute for secure national ID.
What's the issue with SSN being an ID?
As a result, we have processes that ask for or require a social security number that aren't even related to the purpose for which it was created: Health care, loans, debt collection.
Notably, some citizens of certain religious sects, like the Amish, do not have social security numbers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Everything works just fine” It definitely worked great for a lot of dictators, tax cheats and the sort… I think Switzerland is a great example of why complete privacy isn’t fair on ordinary taxpayers - it allows the ultra-rich to hide what they owe
Prior to 1913 the IRS didn't exist. The US seemed to do just fine before then. Tarrifs are the best way for the government to raise revenues. Especially when you are doing business with hostile countries like China. Please do educate yourself on US history before making such comments about privacy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The banks aren't the only victims. The person has had their credit rating damaged, and may even be on the hook for fraudulent charges made in their name.
> The person has had their credit rating damaged This is called libel. This person is a victim of a crime the credit reporting agency committed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the issue with SSN being an ID?
It was creating for the purpose of tracking an individual's account by the Social Security Administration. It later became a de facto identifier and, even worse, is many times abused as a form of authentication, but it was never designed to be either. As a result, we have processes that ask for or require a social security number that aren't even related to the purpose for which it was created: Health care, loans, de…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say this problem would also be solved if we stopped pretending that a Social Security number was a serious substitute for secure national ID.
What's the issue with SSN being an ID?
While the government says that an SSN is not necessary to open a bank or credit card account, all the ones that I’ve encountered require it to proceed with the application, and the government doesn’t do any enforcement of that.
There’s a petition on resistbot now to get some legislative eyes on this issue https://resist.bot/petitions/PONADR
I'm seeing this for the first time given I'm not from the US, but its reach seems limited https://resist.bot/petitions In Germany there is Campact for example which usually crosses 200K signatures per petition, if something like this doesn't exist in the US then I think someone with money should create it or promote an existing solution like OpenPetition to enough recurring signers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campa…
This all goes back to the social security not being changeable and morphing from some thing to claim benefits with to it being your universal password. In contrast, I lost my drivers license and in order to get a new one I had to go the DMV in person and put my thumb print on a biometric scanner which pulls up my picture for the DMV person to look at before they authorize the request. I can also file an affidavit of…
How does the state have your fingerprints on file?