The Social Cost of ChoicePoint is Too High!
<p>I believe we should all consider the social cost of any business transaction before we think that we got a good deal. For example, that burger you just bought for 99 cents isn't such a great deal when you consider the portion of the rainforest that got burned in order to grow the grass to feed the cows for the cheap beef that permits McDonalds to profit from that same burger. The too low wages of people who serve you the burger and the horrible working conditions of the meat packing workers also merit mention. Thus, the social cost of that burger is quite high.</p><p>When I consider the social cost of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChoicePoint">ChoicePoint </a>my anger goes to such heights that I become depressed. You recall <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/read/050105/choicepoint.html">ChoicePoint's most recent blunder</a> in which they sold private information of individuals to identity thieves. ChoicePoint's Corporate Information Security Officer believes that information security and fraud are separate and unrelated issues. Clearly, this is not true, and now thousands of people must contend with identity theft.  The truly socially expensive "blunder" of ChoicePoint was to deny primarily African-American voters their rights to vote by listing them as felons, and thereby give us George W. as our next President. Given that <a href="http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/04/voter_file/print.html">ChoicePoint has close Republican ties, how can this firm be trusted to provide a list of names to be purged from voter rosters?</a> Does the fact that Florida Secretary of State (the person responsible for Florida elections) was George W's Florida campaign chair, sound a little suspicious? Given how close the Florida election was, we can attribute George W's victory to ChoicePoint's inaccurate felon list.  The hundreds of billions of dollars and many innocent lives wasted in Iraq are all because of ChoicePoint's sleazy tactics. Who would do business with ChoicePoint other than a crook? Please break any business ties with this sleazy company.</p>