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Comment by fortythirteen | Hacker News Reader

"Let's fix a massive problem, caused by the lack of accountability that comes with bureaucracy, by adding even more bureaucracy!"

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Equifax doesn't lack accountability because they're bureaucratic. They just lack accountability, period. The customers aren't being hurt and the people being hurt aren't customers.

Adding accountability to the general public via regulation may make them more bureaucratic. It may make them less. That's up to the invisible hand to decide, once their incentive structure matches their real world impact.

They ARE the invisible hand, personified. The invisible hand got us here. Clearly, it's an invisible hand with palsy (possibly claws, or leprosy).

Mind you, I agree about adding accountability. I just doubt that's really a solution; it's part of a solution.

Have you ever worked in a regulated industry? My experience is that regulators add accountability to bureaucracy. Bureaucracies brush off harm to customers pretty well. But when a regulator can fuck their shit up, they listen.

Sure have. The bureaucracy brought on by regulation rewards company employees who are bureaucratic beasts themselves. I've never worked in a more political, wasteful, back-stabbing environment than when I worked for a large company whose business was regulated.

Huh. That hasn't been my experience. I can't talk about the details due to NDA, but I was surprised at the extent to which fear of regulators produced useful behaviors.

Perhaps the difference is the age/size of the product/company. I could see a new company that has no choice but to build new product being driven by regulations, while a company that already has a long standing, regulated product has incentive to not introduce change.

Equifax is definitely the latter.

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