Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/23/debt-bondage.html
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“Public credit registry?” No, no, no! It will take less than a generation for such a thing to turn into a database of those who are considered politically reliable. What dictator could resist using it to starve his political adversaries?
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It’s great seeing policy ideas that are long-overdue in the Dem field are cross-pollinating between Sanders and Warren. Whether either could get them past the Obstructionist Turtle in the Senate during a first term is another matter, but 70%+ of the public supports an end to the idea that people’s medical miseries should be a source of profit to large corporations.
Equifax would hop to just as easily if a Putin-like dictator told it to ruin people, and give him more cover in the process. The American credit bureaux aren’t the most progressive companies as it is.
This could be implemented without being a government agency, for example as a not-for-profit public utility.
In terms of your valid fears, I’m more worried about a rubbish social media company (like Facebook) setting up a Chinese-style social credit rating system in connection with its rubbish cryptocurrency (like Libra) and forcing it on everyone as a de facto standard.
ETA: the Chinese, meanwhile, are now applying their rubbish system to businesses, including non-Chinese ones.
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Where does the money come from? Any other answers than “tax the rich” (which is not bad, but also not very creative)
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In terms of setting up the public credit bureau? Probably from the same business model that keeps for-profit companies like Equifax running.
In terms of debt forgiveness, the plan is probably to gradually buy off all that past-due debt for pennies on the dollar (which is what usually happens anyhow, except with nasty bottom-feeder collection agencies buying it). That $81-billion becomes (at most) $8.1-billion. That’s still a lot to pay off over time, but there are options besides “increase income taxes on the top 0.1%” to fund a buyout. Two examples (I can’t call them creative, because they’ve been suggested for years): a small cut to the total F-35 programme, or a tax on HFT transactions. Both of those have added positive externalities.
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Cut one jet fighter program (current estimated life-time cost of the F-35 is 1.196 TRILLION; take the money we’ve dumped into it as lost and kill it).
Done.
Any more questions?
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It’s bad enough that some industries are totally dependent on LinkedIn. There seems to be no way to escape the social media blob.
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My cynicism is showing, but I expect we’ll get medical bankruptcies eliminated the same way we got student loan bankruptcies eliminated. You’ll no longer be allowed to bankrupt out from under it.
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In other words, he will make us like the Developed World.
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…sigh…your cynicism stings with the ring of truth.
What the hell is wrong with “Tax the rich”? If they paid their fair share in the first place most social and financial problems the middle class faces wouldn’t exist.
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One man cancelled the student debt of a college’s entire graduating class for only $34 million.
Cut out the budget for privatized detention facilities alone and the program can be funded easily.
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Don’t forget new detention facilities (because people truly are not illegal), and this stupid wall they keep ranting about…
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Even the military is calling the wall stupid and too costly and they don’t say that about anything.
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