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Comment by heylook | Hacker News Reader

Are you arguing that individual SSNs are the primary driving force of the economic development of the last 200 years?

Nope.

I would say that post-war, consumer credit drove American economic success, and that the SSN became a key part of that system. Had it not existed, something else would have served that function.

Yep, we would likely have the equivalent of a DUNS number instead, controlled by some private company spamming you on a regular basis.

Oh god, this should be criminal. Once Dun & Bradstreet have your business information -- because you can't do any contracting without one! -- you start to get really really scummy calls trying to trip you up and get you to sign up for their business "services". They will call you and it will sound exactly like some government agency doing some routine government communication and verification of your information -- not asking you to volunteer any of it, because remember, they have all your information already because it's a legal requirement to have a DUNS number, which only they can issue -- and if you're distracted at all or just not on your game, suddenly you'll be signed up for all this expensive shit which is as sticky as any other scumbag subscription "service" out there. They are scummy dirtbags. What a nightmare!

If only we had laws prohibiting racketeering and officials sworn to enforce them.

"racketeering" is a terribly vague term, and if that is what your laws are supposed to prevent then you must expect official discretion. Which means you must expect politically connected incumbents to not be much touched by it.

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