Credit

For anyone who has seen Fight Club, once you get beyond the delusional characters and the fist fighting, the underlying premise revolves around blowing up credit agencies, eliminating debt and credit cards and consumerism. Identity theft allows thieves to open up credit accounts in other people's names and charge things they never pay for.

In some states-- but not NJ--security freezes are now an option. No one can access credit reports, i.e., open up accounts for credit. Since credit historys controlls almost everything now-- not just loans and credit cards-- but also car insurance and other areas where credit should have no influence on our lives.

The biggest problem with identity theft is not so much that people can steal your identity, but that credit agencies are allowed to report that you have bad credit even if you dont. I say that if we are going to continue in a society where credit reports determine everything from student loans to marriage, then credit reporting agencies must be held accountable for the information they publish. Credit agencies that print false information about someone's credit should be liable for libel. That would solve it.