oldoverholt

The formula for calculating FICO credit scores isn't public, the processes for correcting errors on credit reports are not responsive, and lenders use questionable algorithms that affect things like your credit limit.

https://qz.com/1079490/the-equifax-breach-is-proof-its-time-... http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-wealth/2011/05/23/why-are-c... https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?refe... https://publicintegrity.org/business/unregulated-fico-has-ke...

Going into debt for an education that is sold as a ticket to higher wages and then being punished in employment and housing for debt you took on and were unable to repay is punitive. It's not just about getting further lines of credit, it's about being able to land a job or find a place to live. Oh and I forgot to even mention debt related to medical expenses. That's a huge issue in the US...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/11/12/debt-weighs-... https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/11/crushing_deb...

Weird to jump to the conclusion that I'm not American, but whatever.

Virtually every state lets landlords evict you for no reason at all.

I’m not sure who “we” is or what varieties of “whataboutism” “we’ve” universally decried, so I don’t know how to reply to this.

I don’t know enough about the social credit stuff to refute your characterization of it, but a financial credit score very much follows you even if you somehow end up with more money. Point is, a credit score often closes avenues by which you could get more money, hence the cyclical and punitive nature of it.

The scare quotes of “the greater good” you used for the social credit system can equally be used to characterize credit scores as a way to control people’s financial and employment and living prospects in the interest of the “greater good” of financial markets. I think the idea that markets and the finance sector setting credit scores that have far reaching impacts on people’s lives is somehow categorically different than the state implementing a social credit system that might have similar outcomes isn’t correct. So we should talk about them in similar terms.

It’s not direct, but the result can be the same (and it’s not just about being poor, it’s about a low credit score meaning you get shitty loan terms or a landlord isn’t willing to rent to you). I won’t defend the social credit system, but I do think there are enough parallels with credit scores that it’s worth mentioning in the interest of getting some justice in that area.

A low credit score might mean you can’t rent more desirable apartments or buy more expensive homes that are well-served by public transit, so yes, it could prevent you from using public transit if you can’t live somewhere where it’s a feasible option for you.

Credit score absolutely affects what neighborhoods you can buy or rent in (so public schools) and whether you can afford private school. It’s obviously not a 1:1 comparison or “this one is better than the other,” but when like Bill Kristol is floating the idea of regime change in China in response to news about the social credit system, I think it’s important to do some reflecting on our own oppressive systems.

It's strange to me that the social credit system in China seems to rarely be discussed alongside credit scores in the United States, an already existing, massively opaque, punitive system that keeps people in cycles of debt and poverty.

Just gonna drop this here, re: the availability of abortion services: https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/state-facts-about-abor...

I still think the ideal search experience was the era when Yahoo! would search the Yahoo! Directory by default, and allowed you to switch over to "Web" results that were actually Google search results. It was a cool way to have a default search for "official" or more curated content in Directory (reminds me a little of DuckDuckGo marking a result as "Official Site"), and the option to search web content at large too for more specific or obscure stuff. RIP Yahoo! Directory.

Lumping leftist politics under postmodernism is kind of a stretch, and the characterization of leftist politics here is like what you get when you learn about it from David Brooks columns. There is a leftist politics out there that values objective truth, and also attempts to grapple with arrangements of power in the world (and within societies) that are heavily informed by imperialism, racism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression. Often this means that historically repressed voices should and do get centered in the interest of seeking justice or attempting to right historic wrongs (and/or figuring out how they persist and have been systematized).

What it boils down to for me (a straight, white, cisgendered man who was born into an upper-middle class family in the US) is that the kneejerk "I guess I should just shut up" reaction to being called out as being problematic/racist/sexist/whatever is self-serving and it's too easy. You are allowed to have an opinion and voice it, but some amount of self-reflection is valuable when you often aren't experienced or knowledgable in particular forms of oppression.

The OpenBSD re_format man page is a quick read and super clear and helpful: https://man.openbsd.org/re_format